


Spendin' My Time Thinkin' Bout You

by transteverogers



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Angst?, Bottom Zayn, Fluff, Harry Potter AU, Hogwarts AU, M/M, Top Liam, probably doesnt count but oh well, side larry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-25
Updated: 2014-04-25
Packaged: 2018-01-20 19:04:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1522142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transteverogers/pseuds/transteverogers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam's in his 7th and last year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardy when he's put in a group with Zayn Malik. The same boy that had brutally rejected him 2 months before.</p><p>(AKA the one where Liam's trying to fall out of love with Zayn while Zayn falls in love with him)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spendin' My Time Thinkin' Bout You

**Author's Note:**

> first, thanks brittany for editing this one again! You're a pal. Thanks Mikaela bc half of these ideas probably came from you (also I put you through my plant/daddy jokes. sorry). find me on tumblr at [squishyliampayne](http://squishyliampayne.tumblr.com/)
> 
> title and lyrics taken from colbie calliat's song fallin for you

Liam’s not a people person, if he’s being honest.

 

He’s a plant person.

 

He’s always found it soothing, just being in the silent greenhouse, tending to the plants. They listen to him, for a change (not that Liam doesn’t mind listening to Niall or Louis), and they’re easy. All he has to do is water them, give them some soil and sunlight, and they love him. It’s calming.

 

When Liam turned 11, he begun school at Hogwarts. At first, he thought it was all a joke being played on him by the kids at school but a few months later he was on the train to go to Hogwarts. It was at the feast when he met Louis, a pureblood unlike himself. Louis talked about being the first in his family to go to Hogwarts (the oldest out of 4 younger sisters), and all about the stories his mum had told him while Liam listened with wide eyes. The two were sorted into the same house, Gryffindor.

 

Liam had grown up normally (in a muggle family, Louis had said), and had never seen magic until someone from the Ministry had come to talk to his family. It was surprising, to say the least, that Liam, plain _boring_ Liam, was a wizard.

 

It was Liam’s second day when he found the greenhouse and fell in love for the first time.

 

________________________________

 

Fast forward 7 years, and Liam’s back on the train with Louis and Niall (a Hufflepuff in their year who they became friends with in 3rd year). He’s just finished doing his prefect rounds while managing to stay out of most of the other prefect’s ways. Mostly the Slytherin’s.

 

Liam wasn’t prejudice towards them, of course not (he was sort of friends with Harry Styles, who was probably one of the nicest people Liam’s ever met, who just so happens to be a Slytherin). He just didn’t like Zayn Malik.

 

Attractive, silent, broody Zayn Malik.

 

The Zayn he had the biggest crush on since the first time Liam laid eyes on him.

 

The Zayn Malik that had _brutally_ turned him down at the end of last year.

 

________________________________

 

 _“Uh, hi Zayn.” A 16 year old Liam had said awkwardly. He ruffled the curls on his head, trying to fix them a bit. His mum had always called them unruly but Liam liked them. His heart was pumping double time as he stood in front of the boy who was_ it _for him. Zayn Malik, pureblood slytherin. Not that Liam cared for blood status or house. He just liked Zayn. He was beautiful to look at, and (from Liam’s totally not stalking, no matter what Louis says) he was a beautiful person too._

_“Uh, Leeroy?” Zayn asked._

_“Liam.” Liam corrected with a kind smile. He was used to people getting his name wrong. He didn’t really stand out in a crowd. He didn’t mind that though._

_“Right.” Zayn said, not looking up from his book. The two stood in an awkward silence before Zayn broke it. “Any reason you’re here?”_

_“Oh, I was, uh, I was wondering if you, uh, wanted to go to Hogsmeade? With Me.” Liam asked, his cheeks were brighter than a tomato. He twisted his fingers together, trying to get rid of some of his nerves. He was a Gryffindor. He was meant to be brave._

_Zayn finally looked up from his book, looking Liam over. His mouth twisted into a cruel smirk as he let out a snort. “With you?” Zayn rolled his eyes. “Look, Leeroy-”_

_“Liam.” Liam corrected him again quietly. He could feel tears already stinging behind his eyes, but he held them back._

_“Whatever.” Zayn said. “I would_ never _like boys and if I did,” He looked over Liam again. “Like I would ever like you. Mudblood.”_

________________________________

 

During the summer, Liam spent a lot of time with Louis, getting buffer (he ended up taking some boxing classes) and rather attractive. He notices a couple of the looks he’s given as he walks through the train, and does his best not to blush. It was kind of hard, given that Liam wasn’t exactly used to the attention.

 

Liam ducks into the compartment that Niall and Louis are in, and Louis greets him with a wide grin. “Payno.” He laughs, patting the seat beside him before Liam falls into it. “How were the rounds?”

 

Liam shrugs. “Same as always.”

 

“Run into the jackass?” Louis asks casually. If anyone hated Zayn more than Liam, it was Louis.

 

“I didn’t run into Malik, no.” Liam says with an eye roll.

 

“Make sure to punch him if you do.” Niall nods, looking oddly serious. Niall definitely inherited the loyal trait of being a Hufflepuff. Liam couldn’t help but love him for that.

 

“Sure.” Liam lies before changing the topic to school. “What classes did you guys take this year?”

 

“DADA, Transfiguration, potions,” Louis made a face, “charms, herbology, astrology and ancient runes.”

 

“You Niall?” Liam asks, turning to his other friend.

 

“Same first five and then Care of Magical Creatures.” Niall shrugs.

 

“I’ve got heroblogy, charms, uh… transfiguration, potions and DADA.” Liam says, hoping he got all of them.

 

Louis scrunches his nose. “You have two free periods. Not fair.”

 

“Not our fault you took those many classes.” Niall shrugs.

 

Louis pouts. “Stupid aurour requirements.”

 

Before any of the three of them can say something else, someone knocks at the door. They slide the door open without waiting for a reply, and Liam knows who it is right away. He’d recognise those golden eyes and tanned skin anywhere.

 

“Uh, I was told Liam Payne was in this compartment?” He asks, looking over the three of them. He obviously didn’t recognise Liam, not that he blamed Zayn. When Liam had asked Louis to help change his look, Louis had really out done himself. Liam was buff now, with his hair cut short to his head in a buzz cut style. He got a couple tattoos, as well, the biggest one being four arrows on his left forearm.

 

“I’m, uh, Liam.” Liam says awkward, waving his hand slightly at Zayn before cursing inwardly at his awkwardness.

 

“Oh.” Zayn says, eyes looking over his body in surprise. “The, uh, the heads want you up front. To help with the first years.” He pauses for a moment. “You should probably change into your uniform.”

 

Liam looks down at himself, to see he’s still in the (ridiculous) muggle clothes Louis had given him to wear that morning. The jeans were tight, and he was wearing a tight white shirt with an even tighter plaid shirt over top of it, rolled up to his elbows. “Uh, right. I’ll just go do that and, uh, meet you at the front. Of the train.”

 

“Right.” Zayn says, still not moving. He waits another second, before standing up straight, as if remembering he has to go. “I’ll, uh, see you.”

 

“Right.” Liam says, cheeks turning red. Zayn leaves as well, and Liam could’ve sworn his cheeks where tinted pink except that was _Zayn Malik,_ the asshole who turned him down like it was nothing just a few months ago. The asshole who didn’t _just_ turn him down, but publicly humiliated him. Liam grabs his robes, double checking that he has his Gryffindor tie, before heading to the small washroom at the back of the train to change.

 

Liam makes it to the front of the train a couple minutes later, still fiddling with his tie. He wasn’t very good at tying them. “Here let me.” A soft feminine voice says. Liam smiles at her, Danielle. Liam’s had a couple classes with her in the past, and he knows that she’s a rather nice girl. She grabs his tie lightly, fixing it before smoothing it down and smiling up at him with soft eyes.

 

Liam gives her a small smile, and their eyes connect for a couple seconds before someone’s coughing loudly. “Excuse me.” Zayn mutters, pushing between the two of them rudely.

 

Liam rolls his eyes at Zayn’s rude behaviour and Danielle lets out a small giggle. “C’mon.” She says.

 

As it turns out, Danielle is the head girl and another Hufflepuff boy, Josh Devine, is the head boy (Liam makes a mental note to ask Niall if he knows Josh. Probably does). “Listen up!” Josh calls, gaining the prefects’ attention. “The passwords are as followed. Gryffindor; Angel’s Trumpet, Slytherin; Red Oak, Ravenclaw’s don’t have a password, and Hufflepuff is Puffapod.”

 

“Now, when we get off, prefects you can go up to the school, as always, though if you see a first year stray off, please do direct them towards myself, Josh or Paul.” Danielle says in a soft voice. “After the feast, you’re going to be showing the lower years to the common room and do make sure everyone knows what the password is. We don’t want anyone getting locked out.”

 

“Also,” Josh says, a grin taking **over** his face. “Headmaster Cowell has finally agreed to a prefects common room. It’s right next to the prefect’s bath- password is Hellebore by the way, and it’s behind the picture of a young girl in a field. The password is Lemongrass.”

 

“It’s a basic common room, by the sounds of it, with all of the different houses corresponding colours. There’s baths as well, one for boys and one for girls. There’s also two staircases, which lead up to rooms. The rooms are Josh’s and my own.” Danielle says. “They’ve been charmed so only we- or our guests- can come up them so please don’t try.”

 

“You’re all free to go now.” Josh says waving them off. “Oh, and Liam? Make sure Louis and Niall don’t find this year’s passwords.”

 

Liam’s face flushes. Last year, he had a difficult time remembering all of the passwords, and had written them down in a book. Louis had found that book and ended up playing pranks on the Slytherins in their own common room until they changed the password. “I, uh. They won’t.” Liam stutters as Zayn snickers behind him.

 

Liam rolls his eyes as he turns to go, pushing past Zayn roughly, not in the mood to deal with Zayn’s shit. He didn’t even see _why_ he liked that asshole.

 

(other than the fact that Zayn had perfect caramel skin, with honey gold eyes and was thin but still had muscles just the way-)

 

“Liam, hurry up yeah?” Louis calls, seeing his best friend. “Don’t wanna get stuck walking to the castle.”

 

“Again.” Niall snickers.

 

Liam rolls his eyes, grabbing his bag from Louis as the three get off the train and start heading over to where the carriages are supposed to be. “It wasn’t that bad.” He wanted to make sure all of the first years had gotten to the head boy and girl and Paul last year, and Louis and Niall were waiting for him and well… They ended up missing the last carriage up to the school. Louis was pissed, to say the least. “You guys didn’t have to wait for me.” He points out, as the three of them wait for the next carriage.

 

As the next carriage pulls up, Liam steps towards the thestral pulling the carriage. He puts a hand out and onto the beast softly, feeling its surprisingly smooth body under his hand. The horse like creature lets out a small whine, looking over at Liam with it’s almost lifeless eyes. Liam smiles at it, but shakes his head. “No meat, sorry.” He says quietly, petting the horse again. The horse lets out a huff, and shakes it’s body, causing Liam to roll his eyes. “I’ll try and bring you guys some later, how about that?”

 

“Oi, Liam.” Louis calls. “We know you like those things, but hurry up.”

 

“Thestral.” Niall corrects him. “They’re called thestrals.”

 

“Yes, well, I’m hungry.” Louis sasses back. Liam rolls his eyes for the second time, and pats the horse lightly one last time before getting into the carriage. Before it can leave though, a pale hand grabs the carriage door and pull it’s lanky body into the carriage. Followed by the lanky boy Liam recognises as Harry Styles, 7th year Slytherin, is Zayn. “You couldn’t have caught the next one.” Louis says plainly as the carriage begins to move.

 

Harry’s eyes seem to light up when he sees Louis, and smiles at him. “But then I would have missed your lovely face.”

 

Louis flushes faintly, but composes himself. “Not you Styles. Though I supposed you’re included. My original statement was directed at the asshole over there.”

 

Harry frowns. “That’s rather rude.”

 

“Yes well he’s rather rude.” Louis says, giving him a mocking/sarcastic smile.

 

Liam says nothing being the fact that he’s barely even breathed since Zayn sat next to him, the only available seat since Harry sat next to Louis, and the benches only sat three (Niall was over with Louis and Harry, but he was staring out the the carriage window, not wanting to get into the drama. Bless him). “Don’t bother Harry.” Zayn says quietly.

 

“But-” Harry starts to say, confused.

 

Zayn just shakes his head, and the carriage falls into a rather awkward silence for a couple seconds. Niall’s the one who breaks it. “So. Harry. Did you see the quidditch match a couple weeks ago? Ireland vs. England.”

 

Harry laughs. “Got a couple glances at it, yeah. My dad took me, but I had to leave early.”

 

“Why’d you leave?” Niall asks curiously.

 

Harry shrugs. “Quidditch’s not my thing and my mum needed my help at the bakery.”

 

His mum was a muggle (not his birth mother though, Harry was a plueblood) who owned a bakery in a small town called Chesire which Harry, from a couple tales he’d told Liam, helped out at every now and again. “How are those baking skills?” Niall asks, eyes sparkling with new interest. The lad did love his food.

 

Harry laughs, obviously remembering this fact. “Pretty good. I tried to save you some sweets I brought, but Zayn over there ate them all.”

 

A small blush covers Zayn’s beautifully tanned cheeks as he shrugs, but doesn’t physically speak. Liam tunes out Niall and Harry’s (and occasionally Louis’s) conversation, opting to look out the windows. The carriage ride wasn’t any longer than 10 minutes, but with Zayn’s warmth on his left side, it felt like it had been 10 years since Liam had gotten into the carriage.

 

Finally ( _finally)_ they reached the castle, and Zayn jumped out of the carriage before it fully stopped. Harry gets up, albeit much slower, and grabs his stuff before looking at Liam. “He’s an ass, and I’m not going to apologise on his behalf- I know that wouldn’t mean anything- but… You should know he’s had it harder than he lets on. That was him deflecting.”

 

“That doesn’t excuse him for being an ass.” Louis automatically jumps to Liam’s defence.

 

“I’m over it.” Liam says to Harry, ignoring Louis. “I’m- I’m over him.”

 

Harry looks at him, eyes shifting over his face before nodding. “I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t anything you did for him to- for him to be like that towards you.” He doesn’t wait for Liam to respond, just walks off the carriage and after Zayn.

 

Liam, Louis and Niall grab their stuff silently and walk over to the gates to drop their stuff off and to head up into the great hall.

 

“Name, year, house.” Professor Lewis asks, not looking up from her list.

 

“Come on you’ve known us for years.” Louis whines.

 

“Name, year and house.” She says, rolling her eyes.

 

“Louis Tomlinson, 7th year, Gryffindor.” He mutters before walking past her and dumping his stuff.

 

“Niall Horan, 7th year, Hufflepuff.” Niall says cheerily, and walks over to Louis to drop off his things.

 

Liam smiles at the familiar herbology teacher. “Liam Payne, 7th year, Gryffindor.” He says, and manages to get Professor Lewis to look up.

 

“Ah, Mr. Payne.” She smiles at him. “Good to see you. I saw you’re on my class list.”

 

Liam nods. “You know I take it every year.”

 

“Like you should.” She nods, continuing to smile at him. “You have the highest marks I’ve seen in ages. True herbologist.”

 

Liam blushes at the compliment before waving goodbye at her awkwardly and going to drop his stuff off. “Were you just flirting with the herbology professor?” Louis hisses at him as Liam drops his stuff in surprise.

 

“What?” Liam asks, completely confused. “I. _No.”_

 

Niall laughs. “Sure as hell seemed like it.” He says as the three of them walk up to the open front doors of the castle.

 

Liam rolls his eyes. “There’s no way I’d _ever_ go for a teacher.”

 

Louis shrugs. “She’s pretty good looking. And that’s coming from a gay guy.”

 

“Can’t deny that.” Niall agrees.

 

“I don’t want to do _anything_ with Professor Lewis. Not like that, anyways.” Liam hisses at the two of them as they enter the great hall. “Now shut up about it.”

 

Niall mock salutes him before heading over to the Hufflepuff table, sitting in between Josh (so that answers if Niall knows him) and a girl with purple and blue hair with a lip piercing. Liam thinks her name is Brittany, but he isn’t sure.

 

Louis throws an arm around Liam as the two sit down at the end of the Gryffindor table, waiting for the first years to come in. It’s one of Liam’s favourite parts of going to Hogwarts, watching the kids get sorted. He can always tell which ones are the muggle-borns and which ones had grown up with magic in their life. A couple moments later, Professor Lewis walks in with the group of first years following her. “That’s her.” Louis whispers, pointing out a girl in the crowd. Liam recognises her right away, from being over at the Tomlinson’s household. It’s his younger sister, Charlotte (who prefers to go by Lottie).

 

It takes awhile, but they finally get to the T’s and Lottie’s going up on the stool in front of the school. The hat debates for a couple moments before it calls out “Slytherin!” and the young girl is walking over to the table next to Gryffindor.

 

Liam looks over at Louis, to see that there’s a small, knowing smile on his face. He raises an eyebrow at his friend. Louis shrugs. “Figured it. She’s a sneaky girl. Plus, we are purebloods. S’not like I hate her or anything now that she’s Slytherin. That whole feud ended years ago with the second wizarding war.” Liam raises his other eyebrow. “Ok, not completely. But still.”

 

“Students.” Their headmaster, Simon Cowell, calls over the crowd. It silences almost immediately. “Welcome back. And to the new students, welcome.” He begins to go off about his rules, and makes a point to looking Louis and Niall’s direction a couple times when going over the list of banned products from Zonko’s and Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes (which is basically anything and everything from those two stores). Liam zones most of it out, used to hearing the speech from the first couple of years. Soon enough, though, there’s food in front of him and he grabs just about everything he can, loading up his plate.

 

“M’starved.” Liam says through a full mouth. “Skipped lunch and seriously regretting that.”

 

Louis crinkles his noise in disgust, eating his food like a normal person. “Chew before you talk, you barbarian.” Liam makes a point to open his mouth, grinning at his friend’s obvious disgust. “That’s horrible.”

 

Liam shrugs, and continues chewing his food before stuffing more in his mouth. One thing he missed during the summer was _definitely_ the Hogwarts feasts. The house elves downstairs could cook, that was for sure.

 

An hour and a full stomach later, Liam’s ready to pass out. “Hnnnnng.” He moans, face down on the table. Louis laughs at him.

 

“Told you you shouldn’t have eaten that last pie slice. Or cookie. Or brownie.”

 

“So. Good.” Liam moans, not lifting his head.

 

He can almost _hear_ Louis’s eyes rolling. “You do this every year.”

 

“So. Good.” He repeats, finally looking up at his friend. “Password’s Angel’s Trumpet, by the way.”

 

“And Niall’s?” Louis asks.

 

Liam knows that he’ll know it by the end of the week, so he doesn’t bother keeping it from him. “Puffapod.”

 

“Cheers.” Louis mutters in thanks. Liam just nods as Simon beings to dismiss the tables. He rises with a groan, trying not to fall asleep.

 

“First years!” He calls, mostly since the older years will know already to follow him. The group of small looking children walk over to Liam with wide eyes and open mouths.

 

“Awh, look at the little rascals.” Louis says before ruffling Liam’s hair. “Have fun you loser.”

 

Liam rolls his eyes, batting Louis away. “Take some of the other students with you, since you know the password.”

 

Louis salutes him, before gathering up a few of his other friends and heading to the Gryffindor common room.

 

“We’re going to head to the common room so, please, keep up!” Liam calls over the crowd before leaving the great hall and taking the very familiar route to the Gryffindor common room.

 

The first years followed Liam to the common room entrance, a painting of the Fat Lady on the 7th floor and stopped when Liam did in front of it. He greeted the painting politely before turning to face the small first years. “Why did we stop here?” One of them asks.

 

“This is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.” Liam says, answering the first year’s question. “You’ll have to say a password to get in, and the password is Angel’s Trumpet.” The painting behind him swings open and Liam lead them into the common room. He’s immediately greeted by the warm red and gold colours and the familiar sound of the fire crackling. There were already some people in the common room, chatting and catching up with their friends. “This,” He says, gesturing to the common room. “Is the Gryffindor common room.”

 

The first years look around, their eyes gone wide and glassy again as they took in the sights. Liam couldn’t blame them, he was the exact same at their age. “This is the announcement board.” He says pointing to a cork board on the wall. “Here you’ll find things like the rules and announcements, like reminders for exams or quidditch try outs. Not that first years are generally allowed on the team.”

 

“Not that that doesn’t stop ‘em from trying out.” Niall says, coming up behind Liam. Liam rolls his eyes.

 

“He’s not a Gryffindor!” Someone yells out.

 

Niall shrugs. “I might as well be.”

 

“Shouldn’t you be back at your common room, I don’t know, going to sleep?” Liam says, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

 

Niall grins at him. “Dunno the password.”

 

Liam lets out a sigh. He should’ve known that Louis wouldn’t have told him it. “Puffapod.” He whispers in Niall’s ear.

 

Niall’s grin grows as he bounces away from Liam, but not before ruffling his hair. “Thanks mate!”

 

“I thought only Gryffindors were allowed in the Gryffindor common room.” A snotty voice says.

 

“Bendable rule, as long as your friends aren’t pulling pranks or anything like that.” Liam says. ”Now. Up on the right is the girl’s dormitories, and you’ll find lists on the doors. Those will be your dorm mates. Same for the boys, but up the left staircase. You’ll want to not piss off your dorm mates, since you’re put with them every year. You’re all free to explore now. Just remember that classes start tomorrow at 9am, and breakfast is at 8.”

 

As the first years go up to find their dorm rooms, Liam heads over to the couch where Louis is. He plops down beside his friend and Louis looks up at him from his book. “Reading? I didn’t know you could read.” Liam jokes.

 

“Sod off Payne.” Louis says, hitting their shoulders together lightly. “Just because we don’t all have our heads in our books 24/7, doesn’t mean we can’t read.” He pauses. “Bloody Ravenclaw.” He adds, muttering.

 

Liam laughs, before shrugging. “There’s a lot of books on herbology-”

 

“And you want to read them all to become the best herbologist there ever was.” Louis interrupts, “I know. You say that every time.”

 

“Doesn’t hurt to have goals.” Liam laughs, settling into the couch. “What’d you reading anyways?”

 

Louis blushes, holding the book closer to him. “Nothing…” He mutters suspiciously.

 

Liam waits for a second, for Louis’s guard to go down a bit, before tugging the book out of Louis’s grasp. “Witch Weekly?” He raises an eyebrow, looking at the magazine hidden in the book. “‘How to get Mr. Wizard to like you.’” He scans the article, seeing it’s one of those ‘how to get a boyfriend’ types that Liam recognises from his older sister’s magazines. “Why are you reading this?”

 

“None of your business.” Louis hisses, snatching it out of Liam’s hands.

 

Liam frowns at Louis. “You know you don’t need those silly magazines, right?” Louis shifts uncomfortably as Liam continues. “Dude, I’m serious.” He bumps their shoulders together. “You’re a catch, mate.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “You have to say that. You’re my best mate.”

 

Liam laughs. “Still. You’re a right catch mate.” He pauses. “So who is it?”

 

“Who’s who?” Louis asks, obviously playing dumb.

 

“The guy you’re trying to get.” Liam says with another eye roll. “You obviously aren’t reading that magazine for kicks, otherwise we’d be mocking it together.”

 

“It’s no one.” Louis mutters, looking at his hands.

 

Liam frowns. “You can tell me, you know that.” He pauses. “It’s not me, right? Like, I love you and all mate but. Not like that.”

 

Louis sends him a disgusted look. “Awh, dude, no way.” He shakes his head vigorously. “You’re like my brother. That’d be incest.”

 

Liam nods. “Good, good.” Then he pauses. “No need to look so disgusted though mate. Way to hurt a guy’s feelings.”

 

Louis rolls his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

 

“So.” Liam says, getting back on topic. “What’s his name?”

 

Louis sighs. “You’re not gonna let this rest, are you Payno?”

 

Liam shakes his head with a grin. “Nope.” He says, popping the ‘p’.  Louis mumbles something under his breath that Liam doesn’t quite catch. “Who?” Louis sighs again.

 

“Harry Styles.” He mumbles quietly, cheeks bright red.

 

Liam raises an eyebrow at Louis. “You were an ass to him though?”

 

Louis shrugs, twirling his fingers together. “Defence mechanism.” He sighs. “Can we talk about something else, other than my lack of ability to deal with my feelings?”

 

Liam took pity on his friend and promptly changed the subject to something more neutral, like school and his family (even if Liam knew his family almost as well as Louis did).

 

________________________________

 

The next morning found Louis, Liam and Niall at the Gryffindor table, Niall stuffing his face with food and Louis making a disgusted face at his friend.

 

“Must you eat like that?” Louis asks, scrunching up his face a bit.

 

Niall grins open mouth at him, knowing exactly how much it annoyed Louis. Louis in response, rolls his eyes and focuses on his own food. “Mr. Horan, manners.” The familiar voice of the head of the Gryffindor house said, Paul Higgins.

 

Niall grins at him after swallowing. “Sorry Paul.”

 

“It’s Professor Higgins to you.” Higgins says, trying to give Niall a pointed look, but he ends up smiling. He rolls his eyes after a moment, and handing them their schedules (the Hufflepuff head had long learnt to just give Niall’s schedule to Paul). Paul left the boys alone after handing them their schedules, and the three of them immediately start comparing their classes.

 

“So.” Liam says after a moment, “we all have DADA, charms and potions together.”

 

“Lovely,” Louis says, “we can all face the asshole Grimshaw together.”

 

Liam rolls his eyes, but mentally agrees with Louis. The youngest teacher on the Hogwarts’ staff was Nick Grimshaw, the head of Slytherin house, and a right asshole. He seemed to have something against Louis especially. “Just don’t let him hear you. You know he’d love to give you a detention on the first day.”

 

Louis checks the muggle watch (a gift from Liam) he has, and swears. “We’ve got 5 minutes to get to class.” He says.

 

Liam’s eyes widen, realising he has to run all the way to greenhouse 4. “Crap, crap, crap.”

 

Niall laughs at their misfortune (having a spare first period really pays off), and waves them goodbye as they run out of the great hall and off to their respective classrooms.

 

________________________________

 

 

Liam makes it to his class late, but the teacher isn’t there yet so he counts his lucky stars as he takes a seat near the front of the class room and takes in his surroundings. The greenhouses have two parts to them. The section with the plants, and a classroom at the back. That’s where Liam (along with the rest of the students) are waiting from Professor Lewis.

 

She comes in exactly 3 minutes and 27 seconds late, looking incredibly flustered. “Sorry I’m late.” She says, fixing her hair. “Now,” She says, finally catching her breath. “In the greenhouse, I have exactly 10 mimbulus mimbletonia. These buggers are hard to get a hard to get your hand on, especially ten of them.”

 

Someone near the back pikes up. “So why did you get them?”

 

“Ah, good question Mr. Fishel.” Prof. Lewis grins. “This is your semester one project. You are to care for and grow the mimbulus mimbletonia.”

 

“There’s 20 people in the class, though, not ten.” Another voice says.

 

“Partners.” She smiles. “And, you’re about to hate me, but I’ve already put you into partners and, no, I will not change them.”

 

There were a couple groans around the class and Liam looks around to see if there’s anyone he can hope that he’s paired up with or hope that he’s _not_ pared up with.

 

That’s when Liam sees him.

 

Zayn Malik, sitting in the back corner, head angled down and paying attention to, what Liam guesses, his sketch book rather than what’s happening around him. Liam quickly looks away, not waiting Zayn to look up and see him or _anything_ along those lines.

 

Prof. Lewis starts calling out the partners, and Liam crosses his fingers underneath the table that he won’t be pared up with Zayn, but as the list of people gets shorter and shorter, so does his luck. There’s only 4 people left when Liam’s about to start praying to some wizardly god (Merlin was a thing, right?) that he won’t be pared up with Zayn when; “Malik and, oh, Liam.” She smiles in Liam’s direction as Liam’s heart drops to his gut.

 

He should’ve known the universe would think it funny to pair him up with someone who hates his guts.

 

He can feel a pair of eyes on the back of his head, but he refuses to turn around and look at Zayn (he’s 99.9% sure that it’s Zayn who’s staring at him because, what other reason would someone have to stare at Liam?). Prof Lewis says the last two names before she’s motioning for the class to follow her into the actual green house where little baby mimbulus mimbletonias are waiting on the table.

 

“Stand with your partner behind one of the pots, please.” She says in a firm voice. Liam walks to the end of the row, and he can hear Zayn’s footsteps follow him but he still hasn’t looked at him. He stops in front of the last plant in the row, and doesn’t look up. He just stares at the plant awkwardly as Prof. Lewis beings to go through the rules of the project.

 

“As most- if not all- of you know, mimbulus mimbletonias can be extremely dangerous when they feel threatened. Can someone tell me what they do if they feel threatened?” Liam feels the air beside him shift as Zayn puts up his hand. “Malik?”

 

“They, uh, they produce a non-poisonous liquid called stinksap.” Zayn answers.

 

“Correct, but if it’s non-poisonous, why is it dangerous?”

 

“It can blind you.” Zayn answers again.

 

“Correct again Mr. Malik. 10 points to Slytherin.” She grants him. “Does anyone know what else the stinksap can do?”

 

Liam raises his hand, finally looking up from the plant. “It can nurse ill animals.” Liam answers when Prof. Lewis points to him.

 

“Correct, 5 points to Gryffindor.” She smiles at the group and continues talking about the mimbulus mimbletonia and their project. “Now, you and your partner are to grow the mimbulus mimbletonia _together_ and earn its trust. By the break, you’re expected to have the plant grown to half size and be able to touch it which out it shoot stinksap. But, do be careful and wear the goggles for the time being, as Mr. Malik said, they can blind, temporarily or permanently.”

 

The class broke off into a chatter, most people talking to their partners as Zayn and Liam stood beside each other awkwardly, neither of them saying a word. This lasts for about a minute, before Liam can’t deal with it anymore. He’s used to Louis and Niall filling up the silence with meaningless chatter that he had forgotten how bad silence could be. He lets out a small sigh, turning to Zayn. “Look. We’re gonna have to put this… Stuff behind us to work on this project. I don’t want to fail.”

 

Zayn lets out a small snort. “She wouldn’t fail you, you’re her favourite student.”

 

“That’s because I actually pay attention when she’s teaching, unlike someone who spent the past 6 years in the back of the classroom, sketching the entire time.” Liam says, without realising that he just admitted to basically stalking Zayn in class for 6 years. _Way to go Liam,_ he thinks sarcastically to himself.

 

“Not all of us are golden boys, Mr. Prefect.” Zayn says.

 

“You, uh, you realise you’re a prefect too?” Liam points out as Zayn lets out the smallest hint of a laugh.

 

“Besides the point.” He says, with a tiny smile that makes Liam’s stomach flutter. He frowns internally. He wasn’t supposed to feel that way about Zayn anymore, not after Zayn brutally turned him down and humiliated him in front of a bunch of people.

 

“Look.” Liam says, getting back on track. “You don’t like me, and I don’t like you either but this project is worth a lot if it’s taking us half a semester to do, so we have to work together.”

 

The small smile disappears off of Zayn’s face as soon as Liam beings talking, and Liam ignores the fact that he likes it a lot more when Zayn’s smiling. “Right.” Zayn says roughly. “So how are we gonna do this? Shift it back and forth every week or something?”

 

Liam shakes his head. “We have to do it together. I can keep it in my room during the nights- the lads won’t touch it if I tell him it’s poisonous- but then during the school day we’ll probably have to spend a bit of time together, maybe during a spare- when do you have spare?”

 

“Third and seventh.” Zayn answers.

 

“I have spare third as well.” Liam says, “So I suppose we’ll have to work on it that period, and you can take it seventh and I’ll take it eighth. Just near the beginning, I think.”

 

“And while we’re in class?” Zayn asks.

 

“It can stay in my room.” Liam shrugs. “I don’t think we’ll need to be around it 24/7, just make sure it has enough sunlight and water and those sorts of things.”

 

“I could take it during the weekends.” Zayn suggests. “I don’t want it to seem like you have it all the time.”

 

Liam shakes his head. “No offense but, uh, your dorms aren’t exactly good for plants. No, uh, windows or anything.”

 

“Lumos solem is a spell for a reason Liam.” Zayn points out while Liam looks at the plant with a torn up look. He isn’t sure how he feels about giving the plant artificial sunlight, but he does need to share the project with Zayn.

 

“Fine.” Liam says, “But if the plant starts dying then it doesn’t stay in the dungeon.”

 

“Fine.” Zzyn says, obviously not wanting to fail either.

 

“Good.” Liam adds, feeling as if he needs the last word.

 

“Good.” Zayn repeats with a smug look.

 

Liam’s eyes narrow in on Zayn. “Fantastic even.”

 

“Couldn’t agree more.” He smirks.

 

________________________________

 

 

“He’s a jerk.” Liam whispers to Louis in charms class as they go over a rather simple charm. Liam looks over his shoulder and back to where Zayn and Harry are sitting.

 

As it had turned out, Liam had the entire morning with Zayn. Every class.

 

Every single damn one.

 

It’s like fate _enjoyed_ torturing Liam with the fact that Zayn had brutally rejected him and hates his guts.

 

“Mhm.” Louis says, flicking his wand and successfully doing the spell for the 6th time in a row. “Please continue on how much you hate him.”

 

Liam glares at Louis. “Such a caring friend you are.” He says sarcastically.

 

Louis sighs and finally looks over at Liam. “Look, the fact that we’re having this conversation proves two things. One. You still have feelings for Zayn-” He holds up a hand to stop Liam from interrupting. “I don’t know why, but you obviously still have a thing for him. Two. Judging by how herbology went, you want to bang him just as much as he wants to bang you.”

 

“I do not like- wait. _Zayn_ wants to screw me?” Liam asks, highly confused.

 

“According to Harry.” Louis says. “Apparently there was some stuff happening when you asked him out and he took it out on you- not cool, just so you know I’m on your side- and he’s normally not an ass especially not after what happened during the summer. Not that Harry told me what happened.”

 

“When the hell did you talk to Harry Styles about all this?” Liam hisses.

 

“During transfiguration, I have it with him.” Louis sighs, annoyed as if Liam should already know this. “Honestly Liam, keep up.”

 

“Sorry, my brains still kind of stuck behind Zayn wanting _to motherfucking screw me.”_ Liam says again, a little louder towards the end. A couple people look their way, but a pointed glare from Louis gets them to look away easily enough.

 

“Behind, huh.” Louis says with a smirk. “I used to think Zayn would totally top between you two, but this new Liam doesn’t seem like a bottom.”

 

“Louis.” Liam says with wide eyes, looking around to see if anyone was still paying attention to them. “Please _shut up.”_ He could feel his cheeks burning up in a bright red as Louis opened his mouth again, undoubtedly about to say something worse when he was saved by the professor taking over again.

 

________________________________

 

At lunch, Liam headed over to the greenhouse to pick up the mimbulus mimbletonia (he still hasn’t come up with a good name for her yet, one much nicer than ‘mimbulus mimbletonia’) when he hears two familiar voices talking in the greenhouse classroom.

 

“Professor Lewis-” Zayn starts off and she laughs softly.

 

“Zayn, call me Aunt Leona.” Professor Lewis says as Liam’s eyes widen.

 

There’s a bit of shuffling before; “You know dad doesn’t want me to talk to you.”

 

There’s a sigh. “I know my brother can be extremely stubborn, especially with the ‘pureblood ways’”

 

“I learnt about some muggle things during the summer.” Zayn offers up.

 

“That’s good.” Prof. Lewis hums. “It’ll open your eyes to a whole other, wonderful world Zaynie. It’s one of the reasons I put you with Liam, he’s a muggleborn. He’ll help open your eyes a bit more.”

 

“That’s why I’m coming to talk to you.” Zayn admits.

 

“You didn’t want to just visit your aunt? I’m hurt.” She says in a joking tone.

 

“Aunt Leona, I’m being serious!” Zayn half whines, half says. “I was an asshole to Liam at the end of last year and things are really _really_ bad between us.”

 

“Well, I guess you’ll just have to make it up to him, won’t you Zayn?” Professor Lewis says in a firm tone.

 

Zayn sighs. “There’s no chance of you switching us with different partners?”

 

“None at all Zaynie.” It’s quiet for a moment. “You’ll be ok. Your dad will come around… Have you spoken to your mother or sisters?”

 

“Just Donyia.” He says softly. “Mum sides with dad whenever it comes to anything, and Safaa and Waliyha are too young to really realise what’s going on.”

 

“Where were you staying during the summer?”

 

“Harry Styles’s.” He answers. “The tall, curly headed Slytherin.”

 

“The pure blood with a muggle mother?” She asks.

 

“Yeah. He’s… He’s my best friend. Took me in without a word when I showed up in the beginning of summer.” Zayn says. “Look, I gotta go. But if you… Talk to my mum or dad-”

 

“You know they don’t talk to me. Not since I married your muggle uncle.” She replies in a soft voice.

 

“I know.” His voice cracks as he talks.

 

“Talk to me whenever sweetheart. You know I’ll always love you, even if you love boys.” Professor Lewis says as Liam’s eyes widen for a second time.

 

He can hear Zayn coming towards the door, so he quickly bolts away from the greenhouse and into the safety of the castle. He can see Zayn wiping furiously at his eyes and cheeks before coming into the castle and walking straight past where Liam is hiding behind a wall.

 

________________________________

 

 

After getting the plant and bringing it to Liam’s room (and leaving a ‘do not touch, dangerous’ note on the pot), Liam makes it down to the dungeons just in time for the potions lesson. That both Zayn and Harry are in.

 

Louis’s already sitting with Harry, and Niall’s sitting alone in front of them so Liam slides into the free spot just as the bell rings.

 

“Way to be on time Payne.” Niall snickers softly to him as Liam pulls out his books and rolls his eyes.

 

“Says you.” Liam mutters back, opening up his note book and sticking his (ridiculous) quill in the ink jar (he honestly did not understand why they used quills. Pencils were so much more useful).

 

Before Niall can respond, Prof. Grimshaw walks out of the back room, and plops down on the desk in front of the class. “On the board behind me,” Grimshaw says, “Is a couple of questions and a potion. Find the potion in your book, make it, and then answer the questions.” His eyes filter over the class before the land on a figure behind Liam (Harry), and smiles a bit. “Also, the people you’re sitting with right now will be your partners until after Christmas break, so, move if you want to but otherwise. You’re stuck.”

 

“Sure you don’t want to sit next to someone else?” Liam asks with a small grin.

 

Niall grins broadly back at him. “Will never leave you Li-Li.”

 

Liam rolls his eyes at the ridiculous nickname and begins flipping through his potions book, looking for the potion. He finds it without difficulty (or Niall’s help) and gets up. “I’m gonna get the ingredients we need, start heating the cauldron?”

 

Niall waves him off before waving his wand and lighting a fire underneath the cauldron. Liam walks over to the supplies cupboard before picking up the things he needs. He levitates most of them, but grabs a couple with his hands before heading back over to where Niall is turned around, talking to Louis and Harry.

 

“You’re supposed to be watching the cauldron Niall.” Liam says, fixing the heat with his wand. Niall grins sheepishly at him.

 

“Sorry.” He says, turning in his chair so he’s facing the right way.

 

________________________________

 

It’s just before his free period (and the last one of the day) when Liam walks past the muggle studies class only to be called back by a familiar voice.

 

He back peddles until he reaches the classroom again, and pokes his head in. “Prof. Lewis. Did you call my name?”

 

She nods frantically. “Yes, I uh, I’m covering for Prof. Catosh, but I’m rather hopeless when it comes to muggle things, but above all, _I cannot cook.”_

 

Liam laughs lightly. “Is that what the lesson is?”

 

She nods. “Could you- if you don’t have class- help?”

 

“I’ve got a free period.” Liam shrugs, coming into the class.

                      

The class was setup with ovens and tables beside them, with different cooking supplies on the tables. Liam walks over to where prof. Lewis is standing with a recipe in front of her, and scans it quickly, figuring out that the class is supposed to be making chocolate chip cookies.

 

Another minute pass while Liam helps prof. Lewis plug in all the ovens and students begin to file in. By the looks of things, it’s a 7th year class. Liam doesn’t really recognise anyone (mostly people from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff) until the last person walks into the room and it takes all of his power not to let his jaw drop.

 

_Zayn Malik was in a muggle studies class._

 

Liam knows it’s incredibly judgemental of him, but Zayn himself had called him a mudblood not 2 months earlier, so he found extremely surprising that he would be in a muggle studies class. Zayn keeps his head down, making his way to the very back of the classroom, dumping his book bag on the floor beside him. The class has odd numbers (only 11 students) so Zayn must’ve purposely come to class late so he wouldn’t get stuck with a partner.

 

Liam hasn’t really been paying attention to what prof. Lewis has been saying (he’s still at taken back by Zayn’s presence, even if he does now remember that Zayn had told prof Lewis that he was taking this class) that when she calls on him, he’s a little startled. “Sorry, didn’t quite catch that last bit.” Liam says with a slightly nervous laugh. He can feel the eyes of all the students now.

 

“I said,” Prof. Lewis says with a small smile. “That if any of the students need help with the cooking, they can ask you.”

 

Liam nods. “For sure. Used to bake chocolate chip cookies with my mum all the time when I was younger.”

 

Prof. Lewis tells the class to read over their recipes before beginning, but as soon as they’re done, to start. The class is silent for a couple moments before a few of the students start chatting to each other and heating up their ovens.

 

Liam stays up at the front with Prof. Lewis, going over to students as they put up their hands when they need help. Most of their questions were simple ones, like how to set the time on the oven or those types of things. About 3/4 ways into the class, Liam starts walking around, looking at people’s cookies and making sure they know when to take the cookies out when he makes his first round to where Zayn is, only to find him still mixing the cookie dough together.

 

Liam hesitates for a moment before speaking. “Do you, uh, do you need some help?”

 

Zayn’s eyes flicker up at him, narrowing slightly. “I’m fine.” He says in a cold tone. Liam shifts awkwardly foot from foot, not moving. “Will you stop hovering?” Zayn snaps.

 

“You’re, uh, you’re adding too much vanilla.” Liam says quietly after a moment when Zayn’s putting the vanilla into a tablespoon instead of a teaspoon. “You have the tablespoon, not the teaspoon.”

 

“Well the muggles shouldn’t shorten them to things that are so alike.” Zayn huffs angrily, changing the spoon thing.

 

“Most muggles have the same difficulty.” Liam says softly with a small shrug. “It’s a common mistake.”

 

Liam stays in the back with Zayn, watching him bake and helping him more often than not. It takes another couple of minutes, but then Zayn is putting tray into the hot oven. Up at the front, prof. Lewis is reading the notes that prof. Catosh had left, talking about the importance of learning how to cook and bake without magic.

 

“There’s no point.” Zayn mutters quietly, washing the dishes in the sink provided.

 

“To?” Liam asks.

 

“Learning how to cook without magic.” Zayn says.

 

“Sure there is.” Liam says. “What if you have muggle friends? How are you supposed to cook for them?”

 

Zayn snorts. “I wouldn’t become friends with a _muggle.”_

 

“Then why are you taking this class?” Liam asks challengingly.

 

That shuts Zayn up. The two of them listen to prof. Lewis in an awkward silence before Zayn says something quietly. “Ask me again and I’ll curse you so hard Madame Lloyd won’t be able to do anything.”

 

Liam’s eyes shift over to Zayn, taking in his defensive posture. He doesn’t say anything, just nods slightly and makes his way silently to the front of the class.

 

________________________________

 

Liam’s lying in his bed in his dormitory, reading up on Leia (he finally decided on a name for the mimbulus mimbletonia) when he hears a tapping on the window that Leia’s beside. The plant wiggles slightly, as if to get away from the noise. “Shhh…” Liam coos softly, going over to the window. He taps the pot softly, as if to try and give the plant a bit of comfort.

 

Outside of his window, a small grey-black owl is flapping with slight difficulty. Liam opens the window and the bird flies in, gently landing on the post of Liam’s bed. It sticks out its leg, which has a letter attached to it.

 

 _Sorry for how I acted in muggle studies. Rough day._ It reads in a slightly curved, all caps writing. _I’m in the library if you want to work on our project -Zayn_

 

Liam sighs to himself, putting the note on his bedside table, and grabbing some owl treats from the top drawer. He feeds a couple to Zayn’s owl before opening the window and shooing it out. He grabs the books he’s already taken out on Leia and puts them in a book bag before grabbing her, careful not to actually touch her.

 

The common room is in full swing, people making noise and goofing off (which is the main reason Liam chooses to study in either his room or the library) when Liam gets down there. He weaves his wave through people, occasionally saying excuse me or pardon me to get through them. He’s almost out the door when he hears Louis call out.

 

“Payno, where you going?” He asks, coming over to him with a cheerful smile.

 

“Library.” Liam answers. “I’m uh, meeting Zayn there. To work on our project.”

 

“Do you want me or Niall to come with?” Louis asks, looking at him with concern. Liam had told them both how the muggle studies class with Zayn and now Louis felt as it if was his job to protect Liam from all harm.

 

Never mind Liam was a good two inches taller and probably a good 5 pounds heavier.

 

Liam shakes his head. “Nah, man, stay here.”

 

Louis looks hesitant, but Liam waves him goodbye and doesn’t give Louis the chance to chance after him, ducking behind some rowdy third years and out the portrait door.

 

________________________________

 

Liam enters the library a few minutes later, and walks around quietly, looking for that familiar raven black hair when he sees in it the very back corner, surrounded by a couple tall stacks of books, and two floating in front of his face.

 

Liam sits down next to him, putting Leia on the table and pulling out his books. He accidentally drops one of the heavier books on the table loudly, Zayn jumps and looks up at him with rabbit like eyes for a moment before taking a deep breath and calming himself.

 

“Can you not make so much noise?” He hisses, “This is a _library_ in case you didn’t notice, Gryffindor.”

 

“The book slipped.” Liam points out quietly. “And I do know what a library is. I usually come after classes and help Madame Ora.”

 

Zayn looks up with him with a disbelieving look. “I was in the library basically all of last year. I never saw you.”

 

Liam blushes slightly, and looks at the books, fiddling with him. “I, uh, I didn’t come near you.”

 

“Why not?” Zayn raises an eyebrow. “Didn’t you like me?”

 

Liam can feel himself getting more and more uncomfortable and almost wishes he took Louis up on the offer to have him here too. “I uh, yeah. I did.”

 

“Don’t people interact with their crush?”

 

Liam snorts softly. “Yeah, look where that got me. Brutally rejected and humiliated, only to be put together with him for a project.”

 

Zayn looks at him for a moment long before looking back to his books with an awkward cough. “We should, uh, we should start working on this.”

 

“Right.” Liam says in a very quiet voice. “We’re supposed to catalogue Leia’s growth-”

 

“Leia?” Zayn asks.

 

Liam nods. “Leia. Like Princess Leia.”

 

“Who?”

 

Liam rolls his eyes. “Princess Leia is from a muggle series called Star Wars.”

 

“But you named the plant.”

 

Liam raises an eyebrow. “So?”

 

Zayn lets out a small laugh. “Continue then.”

 

Liam blushes slightly, but there’s also a small smile tugging on his lips. “So we’re supposed to catalogue her growth and her behaviour, and compare it to the averages of mimbulus mimbletonia plants.”

 

Zayn nods. “So, uh, who’s measuring her?”

 

“Dibs not me.” Liam says quickly.

 

Zayn’s jaw drops slightly. “Not fair. You’ve spent more time with her. I could get _blinded._ ”

 

“So could I.” Liam says.

 

“She’s used to you though!” Zayn whisper yells. “She probably hates me or something.”

 

“She’s gonna hate you as long as you don’t spend time with her.” Liam points out. “You don’t even have to touch her, just get close.”

 

Zayn glares slightly at him, but puts out his hand with a huff. “Give me the tape measure then.”

 

Liam grins lopsidedly at him and takes the tape measure out of his bag and places it in Zayn’s hand. He shuffles close to the plant (and Liam, by extension). “Ok, beautiful.” Zayn says in a soft voice that makes Liam’s heart do things that it shouldn’t. “I’m just gonna get close, _please_ don’t shoot your pus, _please.”_

Liam places his hands on the pot, making sure that Zayn doesn’t accidentally hit it and knock it over or anything like that. Zayn shuffles in a little closer, bumping his knee against Liam’s as he measures Leia. “She’s 23.4cm tall.” Zayn says, pulling back from the plant a bit. His knee’s still touching Liam’s though.

 

Liam nods and pulls out a notebook to scribble in what Zayn told him. “I already weighed her, so that’s done. We just have to find the average weight and height for a 3 week old mimbulus mimbletonia.”

 

Zayn nods, and pulls over one of the books he was reading before and continues where he left off. Liam grabs one of his own books, flipping through it too look for the page where he left off.

 

Neither of the boys moved their legs, still touching lightly until Madame Ora kicked them out 3 hours later.

 

________________________________

 

Over the next month, Liam and Zayn find each other constantly in one another’s company. They had their morning classes together, so it only seemed normal to walk to them together. They had to take care of Leia, of course, so that took up a few of their evenings together and a free period every now and again. The two saw each other outside of classes as well, since Harry and Louis seemed to have formed an attachment to one and other, and Harry was always dragging Zayn along to hang out with Louis, Niall and Liam.

 

It was a colder night in October that found the five boys out on the quidditch pitch, playing a quick game of Harry and Louis against Niall and Liam. Zayn wouldn’t play, claiming that he never learnt as well as being afraid of heights.

 

“First team to 50, yeah?” Louis says, grabbing 2 brooms out of where they kept the brooms. He hands one to Harry and moves out of the way for Niall and Liam.

 

“Sure thing.” Liam agrees. “No snitch, obviously. Bludgers?”

 

Louis shakes his head. “Nah. Just a quick game, yeah?”

 

Liam laughs. “You just don’t want me to knock you out of the sky.”

 

“Sue me.” Louis sasses. “You’re going out for the team this year, right?” He asks as the four of them climb onto their brooms and Liam waves over at where Zayn is sitting, looking rather cold without a jacket. Zayn waves back at him quickly before tucking his hands back around his body. Liam frowns slightly, but pays attention to what Louis is saying.

 

“Uh, I dunno.” Liam says with a shrug. “Maybe.”

 

Louis eyes narrow slightly. He was a chaser on the Gryffindor team and the team captain. “Tryouts are this weekend.” Liam knew this, it was all Louis was capable of talking about (that, and Harry) lately. “I will drag your ass out of bed and to the tryouts if I so need to Payne.”

 

“Oi,” Niall calls, over from the goal posts. “Are we starting, or do you two need to have a heart-to-heart?”

 

“Zayn!” Louis calls over. “Wanna levitate the ball up?”

 

Zayn nods, getting out his wand and pointing it at the ball. His lips don’t move, but soon the ball is thrown up into the air and Zayn’s sitting back down, trying to warm up ad watch the game.

 

The four boys play on the pitch for 30 minutes, before it’s 40-30 for Louis and Harry and Zayn looks positively blue. Liam can’t help but let his eyes wander over there. “Time out!” He calls, after Louis scores another goal on Niall. He flies over to the Zayn, stopping short just in front of him. He smiles at Zayn. “Cold?”

 

“Freezing.” Zayn chatters, rubbing his hands on his arms in an effort to warm up. Without thinking, Liam strips off the jacket he’s wearing and hands it to Zayn.

 

“It’s thin, but better than nothing.” Liam shrugs, holding it out in front of him.

 

“You’ll be cold.” Zayn says.

 

Liam shrugs. “I run hot. Plus, physical activity.” He smiles at him again, pushing the jacket closer. “Take it.”

 

Zayn takes the jacket, slipping into it. It’s much bigger on Zayn’s lean frame, and the red and gold colours of the varsity like jacket melting nicely with his tanned skin colour. After a moment of hesitation Liam also takes off his hat and scarf, tossing them to Zayn. “They’ll help.” He says with yet another shrug and smile, flying off before Zayn can protest.

 

He glances back at Zayn, seeing him already wrapped up in the scarf and just tugging the hat over his hair. He grins at Liam, pulling one hand out of a pocket to give him a thumbs up. Liam arrives in the middle of the pitch, swinging around to face Louis’s smirking face.

 

“You wanna give him your pants too?” Louis says.

 

Liam rolls his eyes. “Just start the play.”

 

________________________________

 

As promised, that weekend Louis pulled Liam out of bed and to the tryouts. Liam knew he wasn’t guaranteed a spot, just because Louis was his best friend, but he did end up getting a spot as a beater.

 

The weekend after that brought them to their first game, Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw.

 

Liam and Louis were with the rest of their team in the Gryffindor change room, and Louis was going over their plays for the last time. They had meshed well as a team in practices, but that was an entirely different setting than games were. For one, the entire school hadn’t showed up to those.

 

The entire school included Zayn.

 

Louis had said that he saw Zayn walking with Harry into the stadium a little earlier, both sporting Gryffindor colours (Liam had forgotten to get his jacket, scarf and hat off of Zayn, and Louis had given Harry his scarf and hat earlier that morning with blushing cheeks and fumbling words).

 

“Alright lads, and lady.” He says, giving the third year keeper, Natasha, a nod. “This is the first game. Set up for the rest of the season. Don’t mess up.” He pauses, realising those might have not have been the best choice of words for a pep talk. “You’ll do fine. Just like we practised.”

 

The game moves quickly, just like Liam had expected, and soon he and the other beater, a boy named Nathan, are whacking around the bludgers, trying to distract the other team. Liam’s flying over the Louis, bludger in his sight when out of nowhere, the other bludger hits his ribs, throwing Liam off of his broom and crashing to the ground.

 

________________________________

 

 

Liam blinks his eyes, only seeing white and feeling rather loopy. He does his best to take in his surroundings, but all he can hear is mumbles and see only blobs moving around the edges. He feels a warm hand in his own, though. It’s smooth to the touch, free of any weathering that Liam knows his own hand has. He can hear a familiar voice, whispering soft words that Liam doesn’t fully understand in his ear but soon enough, he passes out again.

 

________________________________

 

The second time Liam wakes up (not that he really remembers the first time), he’s with only one other person, who’s currently passed out on his left arm. He sees the familiar caramel brown hair that tells him who exactly it is. He smiles down at his best friend, shifting slightly. The movement wakes Louis up, and in a matter of seconds, Louis’s talking at the speed of light.

 

“You’re awake!” Louis says. “Are you in pain? How do you feel? Are you dizzy? Tired? Hungry? Liam, speak!”

 

Liam can’t help but laugh. “I’d speak if you’d let me get a word in Louis.”

 

“This isn’t funny Payne.” Louis hisses. “You nearly _died_. If Zayn hadn’t-”

 

“If Zayn hadn’t what?” Liam asks curiously.

 

“If Zayn hadn’t stopped you from falling, you’d be dead!” Louis says, voice cracking slightly on the last word. Liam sees concern easily in Louis’s eyes and without hesitation, reaches out and pulls him in for a hug. Liam holds Louis tight as Louis does the same to him. They stay like that for a couple moments, before Louis pulls back. “You’re ok?”

 

Liam nods. “Little loopy and tired, but I’m ok.”

 

“Good.” Louis pauses before whacking him over the head.

 

Liam’s jaw drops. “What the bloody hell was that for?”

 

“ _Nearly dying asshole.”_ Louis hisses. “Now, I have to get back to my dormitory before one of the prefects kills me or something. Because I have classes in the morning. Because I didn’t _nearly motherfucking die.”_

 

“Well hitting me on the head doesn’t help.” Liam mutters.

 

“No, but it makes me feel better.” Louis sends him a mocking smiling as he gets up and walks towards the doors. “Oh, Zayn was here until visiting hours ended. Just thought you would like to know.”

 

________________________________

 

Liam spends the next day and night in the hospital wing, but after that, he’s free to go. He manages to make it to herbology, missing only the first 15 minutes (he _really_ needed to shower, ok?). The class is already in the greenhouse, with the plants. He spots Zayn easily enough in the back of the classroom. He’s got gloves and goggles on, reaching out for Leia. Zayn manages to get his hand on the plant for a second, before it’s spitting out stinksap from its body. Zayn frowns, sitting back from the plant. Liam can’t help but laugh at his expression as he walks over.

 

“It’s not my fault I’m not Liam.” Zayn grumbles to Leia, not realising that Liam’s actually entered the class and can hear him. “With his stupid _face_ and stupid _muscles_ and stupid _quidditch_ and stupid-”

 

Liam’s blushing when he hears Zayn talking about him and accidentally hits his foot off of a table and nearly sends a pot crashing to the ground. He catches it before it can drop though, and places it back on the table sending Prof. Lewis a sheepish smile as she rolls her eyes. He looks back over to Zayn, who looks like a dear caught in headlights, with a bright blush on his cheeks.

 

“It’s uh, it’s good to see you. Conscious, that is.” Zayn says, not looking at Liam but writing something in their plant journal. “Leia’s missed you.”

 

Liam gently places a hand on Leia’s body, listening to the plant coo. He had touched it for the first time on the 2nd week into their project, accidentally. Thankfully enough for Liam, Leia trusted him enough not to shot out some stinksap, but she didn’t coo like she does now. “Missed her too.” He says, petting the plant a bit. “And, uh, I hear I have you to thank. For saving me.”

 

If possible, Zayn’s cheeks get redder and he puts his head down more, nose almost touch the book as he writes. “I did what anyone would do.” He says with a shrug, as if it was no big deal.

 

“Still.” Liam says, putting a hand on Zayn’s shouolder. Zayn finally looks up at him with those big brown honey brown eyes and Liam sends him a small but genuine smile. “Thank you.”

 

The two of them work side by side, measuring and caring for Leia, hands brushing occasionally but shoulders always touching as they work and talk.

 

They sit together during transfiguration, too, working on their human transformations. Neither of them had managed to turn the other into anything yet, so they were talking in between goes.

 

“Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?” Liam asks, cocking his head to the side slightly.

 

Zayn shrugs. “Dunno. Me and Harry were gonna go, but I think him and Louis might be going together.”

 

Liam nods. “Wouldn’t be surprised.”

 

Zayn lets out a laugh. “Yeah, neither would I.” He pauses. “Can I try again?”

 

Liam nods, bracing himself in case it works. Zayn takes a deep breath, putting up his wand and pointing it at Liam as he mumbles something under his breath. A gold jet of magic shoots out of his wand, swirling around Liam and he’s shrinking, and his body changing.

 

Soon enough, he’s much closer to the floor, and his eye sight is black and white. All of his senses are hightened though. He cocks his head to the side slightly, looking at Zayn. He can feel his tongue fall out as Zayn makes a cooing sound. “You’re so cute.” He says softly, picking Liam up.

 

“Woof!” Liam says, and is momentarily shocked that words don’t come out. He looks down at his body, seeing he’s a yellow Labrador and more likely than not, a puppy. He smirks internally, and moves his face closer to Zayn’s, licking a stripe on his eyebrow.

 

“Gross Liam!” Zayn laughs, holding him at arm’s length.

 

“Very good Zayn!” The proffesor says, noticing that Liam isn’t human anymore. “Everyone look here. Zayn’s managed to transform Liam here into a puppy.”

 

“Woof!” Liam repeats, attempting to make himself look as cute as possible. He can hear cooing noises coming from the girls, and a couple even come forward to pet him.

 

“Alright, alright. Time to change you back.” Zayn mutters to himself, putting Liam back down on the ground. “Stay.” He says with a small smirk.

 

Liam glares pointedly at him, growling playfully, but doesn’t move, wanting to be back in his human form. He hasn’t been a dog for more than 5 minutes, but he already misses his human body.

 

It takes Zayn a couple tries, but he manages to get Liam back to his human self. Liam lets out a rough cough, still sprawled on the floor. “What’s it like being a dog?” Zayn asks, offering him a hand to help him up. Liam slips his hand into Zayn’s, feeling the oddly familiar smooth skin as he pulls himself to his feet.

 

“Weird.” Liam says.

 

“Feel any urges to smell butts?” Zayn asks with a smirk.

 

Liam rolls his eyes, knocking his shoulder against Zayn’s. “You think you’re hilarious, don’t you?”

 

Zayn pretends to think before nodding. “Yeah, pretty damn so.”

 

________________________________

 

 

“So you’re saying Liam’s actually been a puppy dog?” Niall asks for clarification in charms. Zayn had told the others the story of Liam’s dog days (hilarious, really Zayn), and the other three were still laughing about it.

 

“A little yellow, almost white, Labrador.” Zayn confirms with a nod and a smile.

 

“You’re just worried that when I turn you into an animal, it won’t be as cute.” Liam jokes, pretending to be offended.

 

“You’re right.” Zayn nods, pretending to be completely serious. “You’ve discovered my true worries.”

 

Liam laughs and grins lopsidedly at him. “You’ll be a very cute animal, don’t worry Zaynie.”

 

“This is the most boring foreplay I’ve seen ever.” Louis says loudly, causing multiple people to look at them and Zayn and Liam to blush.

 

“We’re not-” Liam says, trying to not make the situation awkward for him or Zayn just as they were becoming close.

 

“I’m not-” Zayn says.

 

Louis snorts softly to himself. “And Harry and I are madly in love with each other.” He says sarcastically.

 

“Except you are.” Liam says in a very quiet voice that only Louis hears, earning him a glare.

 

“Boys.” Another voice, the professor, says, coming up to where they were sitting. “Why don’t you show me what you’ve been working on?”

 

“Sure thing prof!” Niall says, jumping to the rescue. He grabs his wand off the desk and points it to the glass. He taps it three times before mumbling something and then the glass is filled with rum. Before the professor can say anything about not drinking it, Niall already has the glass to his lips and drowns it in one go. “Could’ve aged a bit better.” He says with a shrug. The professor just shakes his head, walking away to check on other table’s progress.

 

“Did you just do a shot of rum in front of the teacher?” Zayn asks, his voice laced with disbelief as Louis high fives Niall.

 

“M’Irish.” He shrugs. “I was drinking alcohol before I could hold the glass.”

 

 

________________________________

 

Later that night, Liam and Zayn were sitting in the library, attempting to work on some of their homework together (having already dealt with Leia) when a group of loud Gryffindors came into their corner, sitting in a table nearby. Liam looks over at Zayn, seeing him glare slightly at the younger boys, who are throwing around paper balls at each other and being plain loud. Liam smiles at Zayn softly, rolling his eyes in the boys’ direction. Zayn smiles back at him, ducking his head slightly as he blushes, and continuing his reading.

 

Their silence doesn’t last for long though, because soon Liam hears Zayn’s name being mentioned rather loudly by the boys.

 

“… Dunno why Payne’s been hanging out with that Slytherin Malik.” One of them (the leader, by the looks of things) says with an eye roll. “Bloody Slytherins, think they’re so much better than everyone else.”

 

Liam sees Zayn tense up a bit out of the corner of his eye and places a comforting hand on Zayn’s knee. His eyes flash up to meet Liam’s and Liam sends him a small smile. “They’re just assholes.” He says softly.

 

One of the other boys snorts. “Heard his parents kicked him out for being a fag.” The other two laugh as both Liam and Zayn tense up. Zayn quickly closes his books, shoving them into his bag and not looking at Liam.

 

“Zayn-” Liam says, trying to get him to stop. He hadn’t confronted Zayn about already knowing that he was gay (though he hadn’t know his parents had kicked him out), and he wasn’t planning on it. Liam knew that Zayn had to tell him or this would be exactly what would happen.

 

Zayn ignores Liam, hastily putting the bag onto his shoulder, and running out of the library. Before Liam follows him, though, he turns around to the group of what looks like 4th year boys, who are still laughing together. He pulls out his wand, gripping it tightly in his hand as he walks over, seeing red. The group sobers up a bit when they see him walk over, but one of them, the one who made the fag comment, has the nerve to grin at Liam.

 

“Payne!” He says in a voice that’s too loud for a library. “Good to see you up and walkin’ around mate.”

 

“I’m not your ‘mate’” Liam hisses, mocking the word. He grips his wand tighter, the boy’s eyes flickering towards it.

 

The boy lets out a nervous laugh. “You uh, you gonna put the wand away Payne?”

 

“You going to apologise?” Liam asks, cocking an eyebrow at the boy and mocking him.

 

He gulps loudly, nodding. Liam gets a strange feeling of pride for himself in his stomach as the boy stutters out an apology. “S-sorry.” He says.

 

Liam nods, still glaring slightly. He puts his wand back in his robe, turning around when he hears the boy speak again. “I’m sorry you can’t find any better dick then Malik. How much you paying for him Payne?”

 

Without thinking about the consequence, Liam spins around on his heel, facing the boy. He doesn’t bother with his wand, just pulls back his left arm and swings it forward hitting the boy’s nose and letting the sickening crack of it breaking fuel his anger. He manages to get a couple more hits in before Mamdame Ora has rushed over and is pull him away.

 

Liam shakes her off, gently, before storming his way out of the library and looking left and right, trying to figure out what way Zayn would’ve gone. Liam lets out a dejected sigh, going right and towards his common room. Hopefully, he’ll see Zayn soon and explain that he wasn’t judging him or anything like that. How could Liam judge him?

 

Liam scuffs his feet as he walks slowly towards his common room, walking past a washroom only to hear soft crying from inside of it. He pauses for a second before gently pushing the door open and stepping into the washroom. He closes the door behind him, calling out. “Hello?” He says.

 

The crying stops abrutly. “Go away.” A familar voice says roughly. Zayn.

 

Liam looks under the stalls, finding Zayn in the last one. He walks over to it, knocking lightly on the stall door. “Come on out Zayn.”

 

“Go away Liam.” He repeats, voice cracking slightly.

 

“I’m not going anywhere until you come out here and I can make you feel better.” Liam says, resting his body against the door of the stall.

 

“I’ll feel better when you leave.” Zayn huffs.

 

Liam lets out a small laugh. “No you won’t.” He says softly, sliding down to sit down on the floor. “Let me guess. You feel… Ashamed? Maybe a little stupid, like you could’ve prevented it?” He pauses for a second, listening to Zayn’s unsteady breathing. “You shouldn’t. And you couldn’t have prevented it.” Liam looks down at his lap. “I knew. Not that you were kicked out, but I knew you were gay since the first day of school. I went to go pick up Leia and I heard you talking to your aunt, our professor.” He takes a deep breath continuing. “I know it was wrong to eavesdrop, and I feel terrible.”

 

“Why didn’t you confront me?” Zayn asks in a small voice after a couple moments of silence passed over them.

 

“Because it wasn’t for me to decide when you came out, even if it was just to me.” Liam says, shifting a bit to get more comfortable. “I haven’t told you how I came out, have I?”

 

“No…” Zayn says, sitting down on the other side of the stall. He places his hand next to Liam, warmth radiating off.

 

Liam huffs out a laugh. “I had sat my parents and older sisters down when I was 16, and told them. Wanna know what they said? They already knew. Apparently my, uh, my old sister Ruth had come home early one day and caught me making out with another boy and had told everyone else in the family.”

 

“How did they take it?” Zayn asks.

 

Liam shrugs, even if Zayn can’t see it. “Things were a little awkward at the next family reunion, but things were fine. Are fine.”

 

Zayn and Liam let a calming silence wash over them for a little bit, before Zayn’s talking in a soft voice. “I told my parents near the end of last year. I couldn’t keep it in any longer. I thought…” He pauses, swallowing loudly. Liam moves his hand closer to Zayn’s, linking their pinkies together to offer some sort of comfort. “I thought that even if they weren’t for going against old tradition… I didn’t think they would kick me out or anything.” He chokes out a bitter, teary laugh. “I thought wrong. My dad wrote back, telling me to keep my “faggot ass” away from him and his family, and that if I ever showed my “fag loving face” again, he wouldn’t hesitate to curse me.” Zayn swallows for a second time. “That’s the last I’ve heard from my family.”

 

Liam’s speechless, honestly. He hadn’t been expecting Zayn to open up to him like he just did. But he’s glad that Zayn trusts him enough to do that. “We’re your family now.” Liam says softly. “Me, you, Louis, Harry, Niall. We’re here for you, just like a family should be.”

 

Zayn lets out a broken off sob, quickly opening the stall door and hugging Liam tightly. He lets out a small, soft laugh, hugging Zayn back. The two of them stay like that for hours, probably, hugging and whispering soft secrets on the dirty bathroom floor, feeling closer than ever.

 

________________________________

 

“Saw what you did to that Bieber kid.” Louis says as a greeting the next morning. Zayn and Liam are already sitting at the Gryffindor table, sides touching. After last night, they seemed inseparable and Liam didn’t mind.

 

At all.

 

Liam shrugs a bit cheeks colouring. “Wait. What?” Zayn asks, looking at Liam.

 

“I uh.” Liam says, ducking his head a bit. “I beat him up. A bit. For his comments.”

 

Niall snorts, sliding into the empty seat next to Louis. “A bit is an understatement. You broke his nose, gave him a black eye, mild concussion and a broken jaw.”

 

“On the right pretenses.” Harry grumbles, slipping onto Louis’s other side. “He should’ve seen it coming.”

 

Louis kisses Harry’s forehead affectionately. “You’re just made that you didn’t get to hex him all up, aren’t you Haz?”

 

“Maybe.” Harry pouts a bit, moving closer (if possible) to Louis. Liam looks over at Zayn, waggling his eyebrows slightly before tilting his head slightly towards the two of them. Zayn lets out a small laugh, ducking his head so Louis and Harry can’t tell that it’s them they’re talking about.

 

“Bloody hell.” Niall mutters, “I need a lass.” He looks up to the enchanted sky, as if expecting one to drop from it. When it doesn’t, he continues muttering to him. “Bloody couples and being the fifth wheel.”

 

Liam laughs, grinning at Niall. “You missing out on the Big Payno lovin’?” He jokes.

 

Niall shakes his head. “Never call yourself that again.”

 

Zayn snorts as Liam frowns. “It’s cool though.” He looks to Zayn for support. “Right?”

 

“Sure thing babe.” Zayn says, patting Liam’s leg as Liam pouts. Zayn checks his watch before getting up and offering Liam a hand. “We’re gonna be late for herbology if we don’t leave now.”

 

Liam looks at his unfinished breakfast with a sigh, before grabbing a piece of toast with one hand and slipping his other one into Zayn’s to use it to get up. “Class doesn’t start for another twenty minutes?” Louis says, unsure on why the two boys are leaving now.

 

“We’ve gotta pick up Leia.” Liam explains. “C’mon. You made me get up, let’s at least go.”

 

Zayn rolls his eyes with a small smile. “Yes _dear.”_

 

“Oi.” Liam says, bumping their shoulders as they walk away. “I prefer sweetcheeks.”

 

Zayn laughed, shifting their hands a bit so they could intertwine their fingers as they walked. Liam chose to ignore the little skip his heart did because he did _not_ want to get into that.

 

 

“So.” Zayn says, swinging their hands a bit as they walked. The got a couple of odd looks from other students, but they didn’t pay much attention. “There’s a Hogsmeade trip coming up this weekend. We should go together.”

 

“Mm, yeah.” Liam agrees, nodding. “That’d be awesome, all 5 of us. We have to keep Louis and Niall out of Zonko’s though. They’d spend the whole trip in there.”

 

“Oh. Right. The five of us.” Zayn says, with a small nod as Liam misses the look of disappointment in Zayn’s eyes.

 

“I do wanna stop in at Dogweed & Deathcap too.” Liam says, “I need some new fertilizer for a plant I have at home. Also Tomes & Scrolls’d be good to stop in. Pick up some new books maybe.” He rattles off a couple ore shops, getting more and more excited. This would be the second Hogsmeade trip of the year, but the first one he would be able to go on, and he always loved going into the small town.

 

They arrived at the Gryffindor common room quicker than Liam expected, and he quickly said the password, going into the common room. He looks behind him, seeing Zayn hesitate at the door. “You staying or coming?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

 

Zayn quickly steps into the common room, following Liam. He lets out a small gasp at seeing the room. “It’s…”

 

Liam shrugs. “Not much, but it’s good.”

 

Zayn shakes his head. “It’s so much nicer than the Slytherin common room… It feels… Warm. And homey.” He blushes slightly.

 

Liam smiles at him. “I know.” A soft silence settles over them for a couple seconds, before Liam remembers why they’re there in the first. “Give me 5 seconds and I’ll run upstairs and grab Leia.”

 

Zayn nods, still partially distracted by the room. Liam huffs out a laugh, climbing up the stairs, two at a time. He gets to the room quick enough, and grabs Leia off the window sill gently and goes back down to meet Zayn again. “Ready?”

 

“Yeah.” Zayn says. He glances around the room one last time, before him and Liam are leaving the room and Liam’s picking up the conversation again.

 

They don’t really talk about anything in particular as they walk to herbology, just let a conversation run wild between them and share constant smiles.

 

Once they get to herbology, they learn that the class is just being used to do more measuring and trying to gain their plant’s trust (only a few people in the class had managed to touch their plant without it spewing stinksap at them).

 

Zayn and Liam were sitting in the back, like always, and Liam was doing the measuring. Zayn had refused to do it once Liam had touched Leia and she hadn’t attacked him, claiming that now that she trusted Liam, he was obviously the one she wanted doing that stuff.

 

“She’s grown about 3 centimeters since last time.” Liam says, stroking the plant gently as she coos at him. Liam smiles back at it, half tempted to kiss it.

 

“Mmhm.” Zayn mumbles, jotting it down in the book. “How much wider is she?”

 

“Same.” Liam says after a moment of measuring her. He sits back afterwards, waiting for Zayn to finishing writing down the notes. “Wanna try touching her again?”

 

Zayn snorts with a small frown. “She hates me.”

 

“She doesn’t hate you.” Liam says for what feels like the millionth time. “She just doesn’t…”

 

“Like me.” Zayn says, crossing his arms with a small pout. “Which means she hates me.”

 

Liam lets out a small laugh. “You’re being dramatic, babe.” The pet name slips out and both boys blush, but neither say anything about it. “Come on.” Liam says gently. “I’ll help.”

 

Zayn looks at him warily. “How…?”

 

“She trusts me.” Liam explains with a small shrug. “I’ll just kind of… Pet her while you do it too.”

 

Zayn continues to look at him with a wary look, but he gets up off his chair, moving closer to the table with Liam. Liam gently places a hand on Leia, and the plant moves closer to his hand as she coos softly. “Now what?” Zayn whispers, as if he talked too loudly, it might spook her.

 

“Put some goggles on just in case.” Liam advises, “then just… Gently place your hand on her.”

 

Zayn nods, grabbing a pair of the (hideous) goggles off the table and sliding them on before letting his hand hover over Leia. “I can’t do it.” He whispers to Liam.

 

Liam rolls his eye, taking his available hand and placing it over top of Zayn’s and bring both hands gently onto Leia. She tenses up, only for a moment before relaxing again and moving closer to Zayn’s hand. He looks up at Liam, eyes wide with surprise and excitement and grins at him. “I’m…” Zayn says in a voice of awe.

 

Liam smiles at him, so pure it almost hurts to look right at him. “Yeah…” he says softly, resisting the urge to kiss him. Zayn pets her for a moment longer before pulling back and throwing his arms around Liam’s neck and hugging him tightly. Liam lets out a small laugh, wrapping his arms around Zayn’s surprisingly thin waist.

 

“Thank you.” Zayn whispers in his ear, lips brushing against the shell of it.

 

Liam shivers slightly, but blames it on the cold greenhouse air (even though greenhouses are hot, whatever), not Zayn. Because Zayn doesn’t like him so it would be useless to fall for him.

 

Again.

 

________________________________

 

“So,” Liam says during lunch as he bites down into a sandwich. He chews for a moment and swallows before continuing. “Zayn brought up the idea that we could all go to Hogsmeade together.”

 

“Sounds like a-” Louis starts to says before his eyes bulge out and he reaches down to rub his shin. “What the hell Harry?”

 

“We were uh.” Harry says quickly. “Me and Louis were gonna spend it together.”

 

“We are?” Louis says, sounding surprised.

 

Harry blushes slightly. “I uh. Yeah. I mean, if you want to.”

 

Louis nods quickly. “Definitely.”

 

Liam snorts softly before turning to Niall. “You in?”

 

Niall sends a quick wink in Zayn’s direction (why, Liam has no idea), “Sorry mate. I was planning on asking Brittany to go with me. You know that really cute hufflepuff with the ever changing hair?”

 

Liam nods, before turning to Zayn. “Guess it’s just you and me.” He smiles at him. “That cool?”

 

Zayn nods, with a small blush and smile. “Yeah. Sounds great.”

 

Liam gives him a smile back before ducking his head to look back at his food. “As sickeningly cute as you two are,” Louis says, giving them a slightly distasteful look that’s fonder than anything, “We have class soon. With fucking Grimshaw.”

 

Harry frowns at him. “You don’t like him?”

 

“Fucking asshole.” Louis mutters, stabbing his food violently with his fork.

 

“He’s nice.” Harry says, still frowning slightly.

 

Louis looks up, noticing the frown and his face softens a bit. He coughs, scratching at his neck. “I uh… I guess he could be worse.”

 

Harry smiles at him a bit before tumbling out of the table. He offers his hand to Louis with a kind smile. “C’mon. I wanna take the long way to class.”

 

Louis grabs his bag from under the table, slinging it over his shoulder and slipping his hand into Harry’s. Automatically, the two intertwine their fingers as if they’ve held hands multiple times before and they’re off without so much as a wave.

 

“5 sickles they get together during Hogsmeade.” Niall says as soon as they’re out of ear shot.

 

Liam laughs in agreement, but Zayn shakes his head. “Harry’s too chicken shit. Won’t happen till after Christmas.”

 

“You don’t know Louis.” Liam says as him and Niall laugh.

 

“I’ll take you up on that bet though.” Niall grins at Zayn and puts his hand out across the table for Zayn to shake.

 

“You’re on.” Zayn says with a smirk, shaking Niall’s hand.

 

________________________________

 

Potions passes smoothly (or as smoothly as it can with Niall as your partner for it) and soon Niall, Liam and Louis are walking to DADA together as Louis babbles on about Harry.

 

“He’s just so…” Louis says, grinning lovingly at the air in front of him. “He’s so different y’know? And really smart too. And funny.”

 

Niall snorts. “You’re pretty gone aren’t you lover boy?”

 

Louis bumps his shoulder with his own. “Shut up.” He says, a bright blush covering his cheeks. “I just…”

 

“Really like him?” Liam fills in helpfully as Louis nods.

 

“Yeah…” He smiles slightly, before turning to Liam. “So how’s it going with Zayn?”

 

Liam blushes but tries to play it off with a shrug. “We’re just friends.”

 

Both Niall and Louis send him disbelieving looks. “You don’t have a crush on someone for- how long?”

 

“4 years…” Liam mutters, cheeks going a brighter colour.

 

“Exactly.” Louis says. “You don’t have a crush on someone for 4 years to have it just disappear.” He gives Liam a softer look. “So, how is it going?”

 

Liam shrugs, feeling slightly uncomfortable. “It’s fine.”

 

Louis looks like he might continue, but the three of them have reached the class room and he knows (thankfully) not to continue that conversation where others can hear so easily.

 

The boys settle down into their seats in the back of the classroom, barely having to wait until their professor comes to the front of the class and start the lesson.

 

“Today is a very simple day.” She says, looking over the people in the class. “We will be applying what we’ve been learning about the Patronus Charm today.”

 

Louis looks over at Liam excitedly, obviously anxious to start. The professor dismisses them telling them they can work in pairs or on their own, but they’re to work. As soon as everyone’s out of their desks they disappear, and people start to try their charms.

 

It takes Louis 3 tries before he’s got it, and there’s a silver-white hummingbird shooting out of his wand and flying around the classroom at an alarmingly fast rate. It pauses for only a few moments at each person before coming back around to Louis, Liam and Niall, flying around the three of them.

 

“Look here students.” The professor says, pointing at Louis’s patronus. “Congratulations Mr. Tomlinson. Very nice patronus. Very fitting. 20 points to Gryffindor.”

 

There’s a laugh around the classroom as Louis blushes slightly, but takes the compliment in pride. She waves the students off to continuing practicing and Niall and Liam turn to Louis.

 

“How’d you get it so quickly?” Liam asks, completely floored at how easily Louis got it. He’d always been good at DADA but never _that_ good.

 

Louis shrugs again but he blushes a bit more. “I just… Thought happy thoughts.”

 

“About what?” Niall asks curiously.

 

Louis’s cheeks flare up more. “Harry…” He mumbles.

 

Liam and Niall grin at him. “Awww.” Niall says, cooing at Louis. “You’re so far gone.”

 

“Tell anyone and I will end you Horan.” He hisses slightly as Niall just continues to grin at him.

 

“Your secret’s safe with me.” He replies.

 

Liam rolls his eyes at their antics. “Come on, let’s actually do this.”

 

________________________________

 

 

Liam isn’t freaking out that him and Zayn have a not-date date that starts in three hours.

 

He’s not.

 

Because that would mean acknowledging the fact that this could maybe be a date.

 

But it was _Zayn Malik,_ gorgeous pureblood slytherin who turned him down so badly 5 months before and had made it _very_ clear that he would never want to date Liam.

 

So it wasn’t a date. It was just two friends going to Hogsmeade together because their three other friends had ditched them for dates. That’s all it was. Two friends.

 

Which is exactly why Liam _isn’t_ freaking out over what to wear.

 

“Liam.” An annoyed sleepy voice comes from over in Louis’s bed. “Stop pacing around the room at 7 in the morning.”

 

“Louis…” Liam _doesn’t_ whine. “What am I supposed to wear?”

 

Louis lets out an inhumane noise as he gets up, wearing a tee shirt that’s way too big to be his (Liam makes a mental note to ask him about that later) and walks over to wear Liam’s staring at his half empty closet. The other half is lying on his bed.

 

Louis stands in front of it for a couple seconds, pulling out Liam’s old (and rather tight now) Batman shirt and pair of his jeans before throwing them at him. “Now let me sleep you asshole.” He mumbles, dragging himself back to his bed and falling into it. He’s asleep before he can ever get back under the covers.

 

Liam shakes his head, taking the clothes that Louis handed him and his lucky boxers (every guy had a pair, it was normal no matter what Louis said) before heading into the bathroom that attaches onto the side of the room.

 

The bathroom wasn’t much, not like the prefects’ bathroom (but Liam didn’t feel like trekking through the halls at this early of an hour). It was long, with five sinks (one for each boy) on one side, and three stalls across from it with a hall in the back corner. The hall lead to a large locker room styled shower, with five different shower heads (not that all five of them showered at once), which is where Liam is heading.

 

He places the clothes Louis gave to him along with his towel on the shelf just before the shower, before stepping over the barrier and into the shower. He doesn’t bother with a long one, just doing the necessities before climbing back out and towelling off before pulling his shirt and pants on.

 

Liam’s definitely right when he pulls on the shirt about its tightness. Last year, it fit him like a glove, but this year (with his rather larger muscles) the shirt is stretched over his body, tight against his skin and showing off his body in a rather complimenting way.

 

By the time he’s dressed and done everything else in the washroom, the other boys are just beginning to wake up with the exception of Louis (who’s still lying face down in his bed). Liam shakes his head, walking over to his friend before sitting next to him and gently shaking Louis’s body.

 

“Wake upppp…” Liam says in a soft sing-song voice as he shakes him.

 

“Ughhhh” Louis replies, trying to shove Liam off of the bed for trying to wake him up.

 

Liam rolls his eyes, getting up. “Fine, if you want to miss your date with Harry, that’s all on you mate.”

 

That wakes him up. Louis’s sitting up quickly, jumping out of bed and to his cupboard, staring at it for an impressive couple of seconds before pulling out two things in a flash before he’s running into the showers to try and get some of the last hot water.

 

Liam shakes his head with a laugh, going over to his coat to grab it and goes to grab his hat and scarf before remembering that Zayn still has them. Liam smiles softly to himself, remembering how cozy and warm Zayn had looked in those red and gold colours and can’t find himself to want to ask for them back.

 

Not any time soon, anyways.

 

________________________________

 

 

 

It’s 9:30 when Liam and Louis finally head down to the Great Hall where Zayn and Harry are already having breakfast. Louis makes a beeline for Harry, sliding in next to him with a smile that Harry returns as Liam sits next to Zayn, grabbing a piece of toast.

 

“How’d you sleep?” Liam asks Zayn with a soft smile. He notices that Zayn’s wearing his scarf, but doesn’t comment on it. He also ignores the little butterflies that pick up in his stomach from seeing him wearing it.

 

Zayn shrugs. “Normally. You?”

 

Liam makes a face. “Woke up before 7.”

 

“Woke up the rest of the dorm with his pacing too.” Louis pipes up as Liam blushes and hides his face a bit.

 

Zayn laughs. “Why were you pacing?”

 

“Uh, no reason?” Liam says quickly, trying to sweep that _entire_ conversation under the rug. He could deal without Zayn knowing his feelings for him had returned (not that they really left in the first place).

 

Zayn laughs again, but they change the topic to a much safer one, thankfully enough for Liam. A little bit later, Louis and Harry leave hand in hand, Louis’s cheeks flushed red.

 

“Looks like you might lose that bet Zayn.” Liam laughs, finishing off his piece of bacon.

 

Zayn shakes his head with a smile. “Still don’t think Harry’ll do it.” He pauses for a moment, wiping off his hands. “Wanna go?”

 

Liam nods, getting up with Zayn and the two walk towards the main entrance of the school, talking quietly between each other. After they leave the school and begin their walk to Hogsmeade, a soft silence settles over them for a couple moments before Zayn looks up at Liam through his eyelashes (and nearly gives Liam a heart attack because, wow, ok, Zayn’s _very_ attractive) and gives him a smile (very _very_ attractive, Jesus fucking Christ). “I don’t think I ever thanked you.”

 

“Uh… For?” Liam asks with a nervous laugh.

 

Zayn bumps his shoulder against Liam’s lightly. “For that time in the bathroom… After that guy, uh…” Zayn looks down at his hands awkwardly, suddenly shy.

 

“Hey…” Liam says softly, bumping Zayn back softly. “I would’ve done that for anyone. You needed someone and I was there.”

 

Zayn nods, ducking his head. Liam’s about to say something else when his foot catches on a rock sticking out of the ground and Liam tumbles to the ground, accidentally pulling Zayn on top of him in a desperation to stay upright.

 

“Uhh…” Liam groans as Zayn’s weight lands on top of him with a small ‘oof’

 

“Shit, sorry.” Zayn says, trying to get off of him but he keeps slipping.

 

Liam laughs. “I’m fine, just… You winded me.” He gives Zayn a lopsided grin before letting his head fall back onto the ground.

 

Zayn laughs softly, almost inaudibly, as he manages to finally get off of Liam and back on his own two feet. He smiles down at Liam, offering the Gryfindor boy a hand. Liam takes it, pulling himself off of the ground. “Think you can walk on your own or do you need me to hold your hand?” Zayn asks with a cheeky grin.

 

“Dunno.” Liam says with a wink, “Maybe you best hold on just in case.”

 

Zayn shrugs, intertwining their fingers together and tugging a (slightly) star struck Liam along, continuing their journey to the small village. Zayn does most of the talking after that (since Liam’s still stuck on the warmth that he’s feeling. Because he’s holding hands. With Zayn. Malik.), Liam only fully tunes in when he hears Zayn mention muggle comic books.

 

“Wait, wait, wait. Back up.” Liam says, confused. “What was that about Batman?”

 

“Oh, uh, in muggle studies, we’re learning about, um, DC and Marvic?” Zayn says.

 

Liam laughs. “You mean Marvel?”

 

Zayn nods. “That one. Anyways, we’re reading through some of the Batman comics… They’re cool.”

 

“He’s my favourite.” Liam admits. “I was- I still am, actually- a huge comic book nerd.” He looks down at his feet for a second, scuffing them as he walks. “I have some comic books back in my dorm. If you wanted to, I dunno, check them out sometime?”

 

Zayn nods quickly, smiling brightly at Liam. “Yeah, that’d… That’d be really cool.”

 

When they reach the village, the two boys are still talking about the pros and cons of each comic book company (well, Liam more than Zayn) and Liam guides them to the herbology shop as they finish up the conversation.

 

“What’d you need from here?” Zayn asks as Liam weaves his way through the aisle with a practiced ease. It’s clear he’s been there many times before.

 

“I’ve got a magical cactus at home and I need some more fertilizer for him. Muggle stuff makes him sick, picky little guy.” Liam laughs as he reaches the section he needs. He glances over the fertilizers, picking out the one he needs and lifts it up easily. “This is a lot lighter than I remember.” He laughs, looking over at Zayn who’s starring at his muscles. Zayn’s eyes snap up to his face with a blush that matches Liam’s own.

 

“I uh…” Zayn says awkwardly, twisting his fingers together.

 

Liam smiles at him softly. “C’mon, I wanna go pay for this. Unless… You wanna look around?”

 

“I’m good.” Zayn says with a shake of his head. The two boys go to the back of the store where the counter is located and Liam drops the fertilizer on it as the shop owner comes out.

 

“10 galleons, 13 sickles and 9 knuts.” The owner says in a monotone voice.

 

Liam dips his hand into his coat pocket, pulling out the exact amount. “Can you send this to a Karen Payne in Wolverhampton?”

 

“Mhm…” The owner mumbles, taking the money and putting the fertilizer under the counter. “Your purchase will arrive in 3-5 work days.”

 

“Thank you.” Liam says before he and Zayn leave. “Shop owner freaks me out.” Liam admits with a smile when they’ve left the shop.

 

Zayn laughs brightly. “You, Mr. Muscles, are scared of what, a 300 year old woman?”

 

Liam knocks their shoulders together with a grin. “Shut up Z.”

 

“Z?” Zayn asks, looking at him with an emotion that Liam can’t figure out.

 

“Uh… Yeah.” Liam says, ducking his head as their hands brush lightly. “It’s a nickname… Do you not like it?”

 

Zayn shakes his head quickly. “No, no. I like it. A lot.”

 

Liam smiles up at him. “Z it is.”

 

“Only if I can call you…” Zayn pauses. “I can’t think of anything right now, but I will.”

 

Liam laughs. “Sure thing.” He pauses, looking over at The Three Broomsticks. “Wanna go in?” He asks, pointing over to it with his thumb.

 

“Mmm, yes.” Zayn says wistfully. “I could definitely go for a butterbeer right now.”

 

Liam laughs at his wistful tone as the two of them slip into the crowded bar and it takes them a couple moments, but they manage to find a table near the back. The two of the slide into the chairs, sitting across from each other as a waitress comes up.

 

“What can I get you?” She asks, body turned towards Liam as her eyes rake over him and Liam shifts awkwardly, sending Zayn a distressed look.

 

“I’ll have a butterbeer.” Zayn says loudly, gaining her attention. “And maybe you can stop eye-fucking my boyfriend, thanks.”

 

Liam’s eyes widen at the word boyfriend, but Zayn catches his eye and winks at him before turning back to the now blushing waitress. “An-and you?”

 

“Nothing, thanks.”

 

Zayn looks at him confused. “You’re not getting a butterbeer?”

 

Liam blushes and laughs awkwardly. “Kinda spent my money on the fertilizer.”

 

Zayn laughs. “He’ll have a butterbeer too.” He gives Liam a small smile. “I’ll pay for yours.”

 

The waitress leaves quickly after that. “Uh, thanks. For the butterbeer.” Liam says.

 

“It’s nothing.” Zayn shrugs, “Also, sorry about the boyfriend comment. I know girls like the waitress, she would’ve kept coming onto you unless she knew you weren’t available.” He pauses. “Unless, did you want-?”

 

“No.” Liam says quickly, shaking his head. “Definitely not.”

 

Zayn laughs, relaxing back in his chair before his face furls up in confusion. “Is that Harry and Louis?”

 

“Where?” Liam asks, looking around the busy bar.

 

“Over there.” Zyan says, pointing at a corner across from them.

 

Sure enough, there the two boys are, completely entwined with each other in the booth seat. Louis’s in Harry’s lap, by the looks of things and his forehead resting against Harry’s. Liam raises an eyebrow at Zayn, smirking slightly. “Really don’t think you’ll win this bet.”

 

“Fuck, I think you’re right.” Zayn says, and Liam glances back over only to see Harry’s hands tangled into Louis’s hair and, yeah, they’re making out. “Damn.” Zayn says, then frowns. “No, not damn. Damn that I lost, but good on Harry for getting his shit together.” He nods, looking satisfied with himself.

 

Liam laughs as a different waitress comes by, dropping off their drinks and picking up the money that Zayn had left on the table. The two boys grab their butterbeers, taking sips. Liam watches as Zayn’s surprisingly pink tongue dart out and wipe off the butterbeer mustache and Liam can feel his thoughts (and blood) going south when Zayn laughs loudly. “What?” Liam asks.

 

“You’ve got a little…” Zayn grins at him, motioning to his mouth.

 

Liam’s cheeks heat up, licking it off. “Did I get it all?”

 

Zayn shakes his head, grinning. “Here…” Zayn says, leaning forward and swiping off the butterbeer-stache off of Liam’s face with his thumb. He leans back, sucking the white stuff off his thumb and Liam’s pants are suddenly a _lot_ tighter than they were 5 seconds ago.

 

“I, uh…” Liam says, pupils blown and cheeks flushing. He hopes Zayn will think it’s from the heat of the bar, not from everything going on… Downstairs. “Thanks.”

 

Zayn winks at him again. “No problem babe.”

 

Liam’s cheeks flush harder as he takes another gulp of his butterbeer, wiping his mouth off with the back of his sleeve as Zayn starts up a new conversation.

 

________________________________

 

After the not-date date, Liam and Zayn barely see each other out of their classes and study sessions. Their classes had begun to pile up on them for the midterms that would arrive just after the break.  The load seemed to get heavier and heavier every second, especially for Liam, since he was also on the quidditch team.

 

It was a snowy Thursday afternoon a week before the break when Liam runs into Zayn in the halls just before the last class of the day. Liam was heading out to the forbidden forest, planning on taking a quick break to say hello to the thestrals out there.

 

“Hello.” Liam says brightly. “What’s up with the scarf? Don’t you have class?”

 

Zayn looks down at the Slytherin scarf that’s hanging around his neck and laughs. “The Slytherin vs Ravenclaw game is today, last one before the break. I’m showing house spirit. Where are you going?”

 

“I’ve got a free, so I’m heading out to the forbidden forest.” Liam shrugs.

 

Zayn frowns. “Without a hat or scarf?”

 

“Someone has mine.” Liam says cheekily as Zayn blushes.

 

He takes off the Slytherin scarf and hands it to Liam. “Call it even.” He says, smiling at him softly and- and almost sadly.

 

Liam smiles, putting the scarf on. It’s still warm from Zayn’s body heat and it smells like him. His smile grows. “Thanks.”

 

Zayn ducks his head, blushing. “I’ll see you tonight, yeah?”

 

Liam nods, remembering their study session. “For sure.”

 

Zayn smiles at him. It’s a small smile, but it is genuine and real and Liam can’t help but fall a bit in love with Zayn all over again. “See you then.” Zayn says in a soft voice.

 

________________________________

 

The days pass quickly and next thing Liam knows it’s after an uneventful Christmas and he’s at Louis’s house 3 days before break ends.

 

And he hasn’t heard from Zayn once.

 

He had sent Zayn an owl, wishing him a Happy Christmas and a good New Years, but Zayn hadn’t replied.

 

“Has Harry owl’d you?” Liam asks Louis one time when they’re hanging out in Louis’s room. Louis’s attempting to play a muggle video game that Liam had gotten him for a joint birthday/Christmas present as he hangs his head upside down off of Louis’s bed.

 

“All the time.” Louis answers, killing a guy on the TV. “I’m surprised you haven’t seen the owls.”

 

Liam sighs, and rolls over so he’s no longer upside down. “Zayn hasn’t owl’d me. At all.”

 

“Maybe he’s been busy?” Louis suggests, glancing over at Liam.

 

Liam looks over to his bag, where a brown package is sticking out. “Do you think I should send him his gift?”

 

“You got him a gift?” Louis asks, confused.

 

Liam nods. “Nothing big just…” He blushes. “It’s stupid. I got him a muggle batman keychain… We had talked about him before, and Zayn said he liked him best so…”

 

Louis’s about to reply when his little sister, Lottie, pops into the room. “Mum says it’s lunch time.”

 

“Knock next time.” Louis yells at her, throwing a pillow at the closing door.

 

“Still lunch time!” Lottie calls back as Liam laughs. He rolls off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump.

 

“C’mon. I’m hungry.” Liam says, standing up and brushing himself off.

 

“When the hell aren’t you hungry, you freaking black hole.” Louis mutters.

 

Liam laughs. “I think you’re confusing me with Niall.”

 

Louis makes a noise of agreement, pausing his game and standing up. “Let’s go then.” He says.

 

________________________________

 

“Louis…” Liam says, looking through his bag a couple days later. They were leaving for Hogwarts the next morning, and he wanted to make sure he had everything but something was missing.

 

“Yeah?” Louis calls, popping his head out of his washroom with a toothbrush stuck in his mouth.

 

“Where’s my gift for Zayn?” Liam asking, looking for it. It had to be there _somewhere._ There’s no way he sent it to Zayn.

 

“Oh,” Louis says with a shrug, going back into the washroom but leaving the door open. “I figured you were too much of a baby to send it to him so I did you a favour and sent it anyways.”

 

“ _WHAT!?!?”_ Liam asks, his stomach dropping in fear. “Please tell me you’re joking Louis.”

 

Louis’s eyebrows furl with confusion as he spits in the sink and washes out his toothbrush. He comes to stand in the doorway, watching Liam. “What… Didn’t you want to send it to him?”

 

“No, I didn’t!” Liam says, going to grab his hair but coming up short. “Damn it, Louis, why did you do that!?”

 

“I thought I was helping you.” Louis say slowly.

 

“No, you just messed everything up.” Liam mutters, sitting down on his bed. “There was a note in there and I was…”

 

“Wait wait wait.” Louis says, digging something out of his back pocket. “Do you mean this?”

 

In his hand is the note that Liam wrote and Liam’s heart drops in relief, “You took it out?”

 

Louis nods. “It had fallen out when I sent it, and I didn’t notice until after the owl had left.”

 

Liam jumps off of the bed, hugging Louis tightly. “God, thank you. Thank you thank you thank you thank you.” He breaths out.

 

“What does it say?” Louis asks, laughing as he hugs Liam back.

 

Liam shakes his head, pulling back and grabbing the note. “Nothing.”

 

Louis gives him a disbelieving look, and before Liam can stop him, he’s stolen the note and is reading it aloud. “ _I don’t know but,_

_I think I may be_

_Fallin’ for you,_

_Dropping so quickly_

_Maybe I should keep this to myself_

_Wait until I know you better_

_I am trying_

_Not to tell you_

_But I want to_

_I’m scared of what you’ll say_

_So I’m hidin’_

_What I’m feelin’_

_But I’m tired of_

_Holding this inside my head_

_I’ve been spendin’ all my time_

_Just thinkin’ about ya_

_I don’t what to do_

_I think I’m fallin’ for you…”_ Louis trails off, reading through the rest of the message. “Did you write him a song?”

Liam blushes, hiding his face in his hands. “Maybe…” He admits, before sighing. “It’s embarrassing, yeah, I know. And now he won’t even send me an owl.”

 

Louis hits him over the back of his head. “Get yourself together Payno. You sound like a school girl with an obsessive crush. Just talk to him at school. You’ll see him in a couple days when classes start back up and you go back to doing your little ‘study’ sessions.”

 

________________________________

 

Liam did see Zayn when classes started back up, but that was it. Whenever he tried to talk to him, Zayn had just ignored him or answered him shortly. He couldn’t even talk to him during herbology because their partnership had ended the day back when they planted the mimbulus mimbletonias in another greenhouse and they were matured enough for people to use the stinksap for healing animals.

 

Even when Liam searched the library for Zayn during their shared free period, and after dinner, he wasn’t there.

 

After a week of Zayn avoiding him, Liam gives up, realising that maybe their friendship wasn’t real. He can’t help but think of the day in the washroom, when he had held Zayn as he cried and comforted him. But then he remembers that as soon as their project had ended, Zayn was back to ignoring him and being cold towards him.

 

Liam would just have to suck it up.

 

Even if he did end up falling asleep holding onto Zayn’s scarf every night, wishing that they were still friends, at least.

 

Wishing Zayn didn’t hate him so much.

 

Wishing he didn’t have to fall for him so hard.

 

But most of all, wishing to be able to wrap himself around a smaller, thinner body instead of a scarf that barely even smells like him anymore.

 

________________________________

 

 

It was a month after the holiday break, and the midterms are over and so is Liam’s excuse to only go from his classes to his dorm room and to quiddtich practices.

 

Liam may be being dramatic about it, but he honestly didn’t feel like doing anything else. He just wanted to lay in his bed, under the blankets and gripping a scarf that wasn’t even his too hard.

 

He was walking back to his dorm alone one time, when Harry cornered him. Well, cornering wouldn’t do it justice.

 

 

Harry pushes him against a wall, arm on his throat and points his wand in Liam’s face, glare at him harshly. “What did you say to Zayn?”

 

Liam huffs. “I wouldn’t know, seeing as he’s ignoring me.”

 

Harry pressed harder against his throat and Liam lets out a cough. “What the hell!?!” A new voice asks, and Liam can’t help but be relieved. Louis would help. “What the hell are you doing Harry!? Get off of him!”

 

Harry pauses, but does as Louis tells him. He keeps his wand up though. “What did you do to Zayn?”

 

Louis lets out an annoyed noise. “What did _he_ do to Zayn? I think you’re interrogating the wrong person Harry.” He crosses his arms, standing with Liam.

 

“Zayn hasn’t been sleeping, he’s barely eating and he’s not talking to anyone.” Harry says, a look of desperation coming up in his eyes. “It happened during the Christmas break. I first thought it was because this was the first Christmas after… Everything. But he’s still like this and I- I don’t know what’s going on with my best friend.” He whispers the last part, his voice cracking.

 

Louis visibly softens, obviously wanting to go and comfort Harry but also feeling the need to stand with Liam. Liam gently bumps him towards Harry and that’s all Louis needs before he’s wrapping Harry up in a hug and kissing his face. “Baby…” He says softly before kissing Harry gently on the lips. Harry gathers himself after that, wrapping an arm around Louis’s waist.

 

“I just…” Harry says, looking a little awkward. “I assumed you did something because for the months up to the Christmas break, he was all you could talk about. ‘Liam’s so nice, Harry’ and ‘Liam’s so smart, Harry’ or ‘why was I such an ass to Liam, he’s so… Amazing.’ And then he just. Stopped.”

 

Liam blushes at the comments, not fully believing them. “I sent him an owl over the Christmas break and- and a gift. I tried talking to him but… Nothing’s worked.” He looks down, twisting his fingers together. “I just thought… I just thought, after a while, that the whole friendship thing didn’t actually happen.”

 

Harry shakes his head quickly. “No, no. Zayn…” He pauses, looking for the right words. “Zayn loved being friends with you. I don’t know why he…”

 

“Look just…” _Tell Zayn I was starting to fall for him._ Liam was going to say, but he stops himself, shaking his head. “I can’t do this.” Liam whispers softly, swallowing the lump that’s growing in his throat. “I-I have to go.” He says louder, pushing past Louis and Harry.

 

“Liam!” Louis calls after him, concern evident in his voice but Liam doesn’t stop. He just keeps going, letting his feet guide him until he’s outside of the greenhouse where they planted the mimbulus mimbletonias. He stops just short of the door, though, hearing a voice inside.

 

“Hello Leia.” The voice says and Liam could recognise that voice anywhere, any time.

 

It was Zayn’s.

 

Liam’s about to leave, but then he hears Zayn talk again and he can’t.

 

“I missed you…” He says softly. “Almost as much as I miss him.” There’s a sigh and a sniffle before Zayn keeps talking. “I just… I couldn’t keep being his friend, knowing that he hated me when I was falling so hard for him. I couldn’t keep doing it Leia. I wish I could, god. I’ve seen the confused looks he’s sent me but. I’m too weak to try and get him to like me, even as a friend. I can’t look at him and be constantly reminded on how I was such an ass to him and. Leia.” His voice cracks on the name. “I wish I was strong enough to be there for you Liam. I wish I was. I can’t.”

 

Liam stands just outside of the greenhouse, completely floored by Zayn’s confession. “Oh my god…” He whispers to himself without even realising it.

 

“I still wear his jacket.” Zayn says quietly. “I wear it and pretend, just for a little bit, that I had said yes to him 7 months ago and that we got together during September and we’re happy together. But then I remember how I said no, and how I lost probably the best thing I didn’t even know I could have and I cry. I go to sleep holding myself together, crying over boy I’ve never had and never will have.”

 

Liam’s jaw drops and, without realising it, he gasps loudly. “Hello?” Zayn calls out warily. “Fuck.” Liam whispers to himself, unsure if he should run or not.

 

Zayn makes that up for him, though, when he steps outside of the greenhouse and looks right at Liam. He pales considerably. “I-I…” He stutters out, eyes wide and looking terrified.

 

“Do you…?” Liam asks, unable to fully form the question.

 

“Did you hear all of that?” Zayn whispers and Liam nods, making Zayn pale more. Liam didn’t think it was possible for Zayn to even go that pale. “It’s true.” He admits though.

 

“You’re falling for me?” Liam asks.

 

“And then some…” Zayn mutters, nodding.

 

Liam doesn’t think, exactly, he just. Goes. He goes to Zayn, wrapping him up in his arms and kissing him fully on the mouth passionately.

 

Zayn lets out a small, surprised noise, but then he’s throwing his arms around Liam’s neck, tangling his fingers in his hair, smashing their faces closer together. His tongue darts out, wetting Liam’s lips and Liam opens them, deepening the kiss.

 

Liam couldn’t tell you how long they stood there, kissing in front of the green house, but he doesn’t stop kissing Zayn until his need for air is stronger than his need for Zayn. He doesn’t pull back fully when he finally pulls away though. He just rests his forehead against Zayn’s, their lips still brushing as the two breathe heavily.

 

“Why did you kiss me?” Zayn mumbles softly.

 

“Because I can and I want to.” Liam replies, lips brushing Zayn’s with a little more intent than the last couple of times.

 

“I was an ass to you.” Zayn frowns. “Twice.”

 

“I forgave you. Once.” Liam says. “You’re gonna have to earn this time’s forgiveness.”

 

“Anything.” Zayn says with honestly.

 

Liam smirks slightly. “I have a couple ideas.”

 

________________________________

 

_ Epilogue _

__

__

“You think you’re bloody hilarious, don’t you?” Zayn mutters, glaring at his boyfriend who’s grinning at him madly.

 

“Babe, we made this deal in February.” Liam points out with a smirk, and then whispers in his ear; “Plus… I have a reward for you if you go through with this.” He bites on Zayn’s earlobe lightly, tugging at it slightly.

 

“Liam…” Zayn half moans, half groans in annoyance.

 

“C’mon Z,” Liam says, pulling away with a cheeky grin. “We’re gonna be late for the ceremony.”

 

It was the end of June, and the 7th years were having their graduation ceremony outside, with all of the parents, muggles and wizards alike. “I really don’t like you right now.” Zayn mumbles, trying to pull the gown lower. All of the 7th years kept giving him glances but no one full out said anything about it and none of the professor could fully see what was going on.

 

And what was going on was Zayn in a graduation gown. With nothing underneath it.

 

It was _hilarious._

 

“This is going to be my first impression on your family Li.” Zayn whines. “Do I really have to do this?”

 

“Oh, Ruth and Nic will love you for doing this.” Liam says, patting him on the shoulder as one of the professors call for them to line up in alphabetical by last name. Liam quickly kisses Zayn before leaving to go to his spot father down the line.

 

The head boy and girl finish up with their speech and soon they’re walking across the stage. As Zayn gets closer and closer to the front of the line, he gets more and more fidgety, trying to tug the gown down past his mid-thigh. It doesn’t work.

 

The professor at the front of the line isn’t even looking at him, just watching the headmaster for the cues to tell the next student to go.

 

“Next.” He says, and Zayn gathers all of the courage he has (not really his forte, honestly. There’s a reason Liam’s the Gryffindor, not him) and walks up the stages and out of the tents.

 

The crowd gasps and there’s a couple of laughs here and there as Zayn walks over to shake Headmaster Cowell’s hand. He’s staring at him with a look that’s between pissed off and impressed as he shakes his hand, and takes his diploma, pausing for a photo.

 

He doesn’t expect a flash to go off (since his parents didn’t come), so the fact that 4 flashes go off surprises him. He blinks a couple times, seeing Niall and Louis in the back with cameras (and then Louis running off to get back in the tent so he doesn’t miss his turn to walk across the stage), along with a couple of girls who look a lot like Liam in one of the middle rows with muggle cameras.

 

He walks off, holding the gown down in an effort to make sure it doesn’t go flying up or anything like that.

 

It’s about half an hour later after the last person walks across the stage to get their diploma and Liam finds Zayn right away, grinning at him and kissing him quickly. “Looked great out there babe.” He says with a grin.

 

Zayn sticks his tongue out at him. “Shut up asshole.”

 

“You love me.” Liam says and Zayn’s heart skips a beat at the L word, but plays it off.

 

“You wish.” Zayn says, pretending to be stuck up.

 

Liam just laughs, grabbing his hand and tugging him closer, kissing him full on the lips. They kiss for a little bit longer before someone’s coughing grabbing their attention. Zayn pulls away from Liam slightly, and Liam looks over at whoever interrupted them. “Mum, dad.” He says, and Zayn stiffens.

 

He was making the _worst_ impression on Liam’s parents.

 

“Hello Liam and Zayn, is it?” His mother asks, looking at Zayn with amusement.

 

“Uh. Yes ma’am.” Zayn says, sticking his hand out for her to shake as he half hides behind Liam, trying to hide the fact that he’s not wearing pants. Or underwear.

 

She shakes it, grinning at him. “I’m Karen and this is my husband Geoff. Our two daughters, Ruth and Nicola, are talking with Louis and his family.”

 

The four of them talk for a bit before Ruth and Nicola come and join them. They head to the feast together as well, sitting at the Gryffindor table with Harry, Louis, Niall and Niall’s somewhat new girlfriend, Brittany, as well as their families.

 

________________________________

 

 

The graduates have one more night at Hogwarts and Zayn plans to make the most of it. He sneaks out of his common room just after curfew and over to the Gryffindor common room. The common room is still alive with all of the graduates and it takes Zayn about three seconds to locate Liam.

 

He’s at the center of the noise, sitting beside Louis who’s tell some story _extremely_ loud. He sneaks up behind his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around Liam’s waist. “Hey babe.” He whispers, kissing Liam’s cheek. A couple people let out some cheers and a few laugh.

 

“It’s after curfew.” Liam points out, smiling at him.

 

“Figured we could go somewhere.” Zayn says with a shrug. “Alone.” He adds, whispering.

 

Liam nods quickly. “Yeah, I’m. I’m definitely ok with that.”

 

Zayn pulls back, offering Liam his hand. Liam takes it, intertwining their fingers together as Zayn leads them out of the crowded room.

 

“Get it in Payne!” Louis calls out after them, laughing. A bunch of people let out wolf whistles and a couple even cat call at them.

 

Zayn and Liam laugh as they leave the common room, but quickly quiet themselves, not wanting to get caught on the last night of their Hogwarts careers.

 

Zayn leads him down to the Room of Requirement, opening up the door just by thinking about a lush, soft bed.

 

The room is nice, with a big bed in the middle of it and, really, that’s all Zayn cares about at this moment. He drags Liam into the room, shutting the door behind them and kissing him full on the lips. He kisses Liam with the intent to get him into bed, so it’s messy and sloppy and really _really_ hot.

 

“B-babe…” Liam moans as Zayn kisses along his neck, leaving a couple marks behind. Liam’s hands slip down to Zayn’s ass, groping at it before slipping his hands under Zayn’s thin pajama pants, feeling his bare ass. “God, you’re not wearing boxers.”

 

Zayn moans as an answer. “Thought- thought it would get me naked faster. Was thinking about you all night babe. Want you inside of me, like, 5 months ago.”

 

Liam groans, pushing Zayn’s pants to the ground. “You can’t just say things like that Zayn.”

 

Zayn smirks at him as Liam drops to his knees, kiss Zayn’s stomach and thighs, but not actually touching his dick. Zayn groans, bucking his hips forward just slightly. “Get on with it Li, please.”

 

Liam complies, taking the tip of Zayn into his mouth and working at the base with his hand. He lets his throat adjust a bit before taking more of Zayn in, swirling his tongue around the top, too, and then pressing his tongue flat against underside of his dick. Liam bobs his head a bit before Zayn’s gripping his shoulders and pulling himself out of Liam’s mouth. “Wasn’t joking when I said I want you in me.” He said breathlessly. “Want you to fuck me Liam. Want you to fuck me so hard I feel it in the morning.”

 

Liam moans, pressing palm of his hand on his aching cock as he gets up, kissing Zayn messily and pushing him back towards the bed. Zayn hits the bed, falling onto it and then moving up it and taking his shirt off. Liam follow his idea, taking his pants and underwear off along with his top before climbing onto the bed and on top of Zayn. Liam grinds his hips downward and slowly, making Zayn moan loudly at the friction. “Want you so bad.” Liam mumbles in his ear as he keeps up with the grinding. “Want to feel how tight you are Z.” Liam kisses him, surprisingly soft for everything that’s going on. “Wanna make love to you Zayn.” He mumbles against Zayn’s lips, slowing down his hips.

 

“L-Love you.” Zayn says, tightening his arms around Liam’s neck and bringing him closer. “Love you so much.”

 

“Love you too babe.” Liam says, kissing his lips softly for a moment.

 

“Ok.” Zayn says breathlessly, “If you don’t continue on with this I’m going to be so pissed.”

 

Liam smirks at him, grinding down on him quick and fast, getting a loud moan out of Zayn. “Better?”

 

“Fingers babe.” Zayn says. “Want your fingers.”

 

Liam grabs the bottle of lube that appeared randomly (thank you Room of Requirement) next to Zayn, putting some of it on his fingers and shuffling down his body. Zayn’s hole quivers slightly and Liam can’t help but have his tongue dart out and lick a stripe flat across it. Zayn moans his name loudly, hips bucking up into the air. Liam does it a couple more times, slicking up Zayn’s hole with his spit before slipping his finger in down to the first knuckle.

 

Zayn freezes, forcing his body to relax to take the finger. Liam starts kissing around his thighs, going close to his dick and hole, but not actually touching them. After a moment, Zayn moves his hips backwards, rocking down on Liam’s finger. A bit later, Liam’s teasing Zayn with three of his fingers, reducing his boyfriend to a withering mess above him. “Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam, Liam.” Zayn repeats, voice high. “Babe, please. Need you.”

 

“What do you need Zayn?” Liam asks, rubbing his fingers right against Zayn’s prostate.

 

“I need your dick in me now.” Zayn groans, rocking down onto Liam’s thick fingers. “Please, please, Liam, baby, please.”

 

Liam pulls his fingers out of Zayn, and grabbing a condom that appears next to him, ripping it open and sliding it along his dick. He groans, finally getting a hand on his dick. He hadn’t even realised how hard he was. Liam shuffles up a bit, lifting up Zayn’s leg so he has a better angle. “This okay?” Liam breaths out, his dick brushing over Zayn’s hole.

 

Zayn nods quickly. “Please.” He whines, head falling backwards. Liam lines up with his whole, slipping in slowly, letting Zayn adjust to him before he bottoms out. They pause for a moment, both boys catching their breath for a moment before Zayn nods at Liam, signalling that it was okay for him to move. Liam moves I and out slowly, building up a speed, and soon enough, he’s pounding into Zayn with enough force that the bed is shaking and both boys are moaning.

 

“So close Li.” Zayn says, rocking down to meet Liam’s thrusts. Liam slips a hand in between them and even though the angle’s awkward, it only takes a couple strokes before Zayn moaning in a high pitch voice, throwing his head back and covering both of them in white as his hole tightens. Liam doesn’t last much longer, and a couple hard thrusts later, he slumps over, releasing his load.

 

They stay like that for a couple moments, and then Liam pulls out with a groan from both of them, and he rolls off the condom and ties it off, throwing it out in a garage bin. A wet cloth appears, floating lightly in the air until Liam takes it, wiping both the boys down. He tosses that out too, before shuffling Zayn around a bit so they can both get under the covers.

 

“We should shower…” Zayn mumbles softly, burrowing in Liam’s arms.

 

“In the morning.” Liam says softly, yawning. He kisses Zayn’s forehead, before getting a little bit more comfortable and closes his eyes.

 

“I do love you.” Zayn says just before Liam’s about to fall asleep. “Wasn’t just heat of the moment.”

 

Liam nods. “I love you too baby.” Liam falls asleep after that, holding tightly onto Zayn as they drift off to another world, but ready to face this one when they come back.

 

________________________________

 

 

_I’ve been waiting all my life_

_Now I’ve found you_

_I think I’m falling for you_

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at [squishyliampayne](http://squishyliampayne.tumblr.com/)


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